From communism to the post-Soviet era, a little known cinema
The first cinema screenings in the country took place between 1903 and 1913, when private screenings were organized at the court of Prince Namnansüren, in the city of Urga - formerly Ulaanbaatar. After the Russian Revolution, the People's Revolutionary Party became the national management body of the cinema, transforming the seventh art into a tool for mass education. A network of permanent cinemas, coupled with travelling screenings, was set up to cover the whole country. The first cinema in Mongolia was inaugurated in 1934 in Ulaanbaatar, while the Mongol Kino studios were founded on October 11, 1935. During the half of the twentieth century, it is from this institution that will come all the national productions. Works used to disseminate Soviet propaganda through heroic stories and drawing on folk tales. The first Mongolian film - a short film entitled The Way of Najmaa - was released in 1938, contrasting traditional religious values of Mongolian society with modernity and socialist progress. During the Second World War, Mongolia became a rallying point for Soviet filmmakers who had to flee the Nazi invasion, and many productions were made, such as His Name was Sükhe Bätor (1942), a work in praise of this hero of the revolution, or Prince Tsogt (1945). This successful work, filmed by the Mongolian Dejidiin Jigjid, is reminiscent of Eisenstein'sAlexander Nevsky, released seven years earlier in Russia.
After the war, Mongolian cinema continued to gather crowds around working-class heroes and historical dramas of a nationalist nature. A few titles stand out: The Awakening (1957), a musical based again on the theme of Norjmaa; Bayandelger Jamsran's Elbeg Deel (1960), a rural romance set against the backdrop of the sixties; Altan Örgöö or The Golden Palace (1961), the first color film in Mongolian cinema, a fantasy fable co-produced with East Germany.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet power waned and the cinema was liberated. The Five Colors of the Rainbow (1978) by Nagnaidorj Badamsuren or Garid Magnai (1983) by Jamyangiin Buntar mark a new youth of Mongolian cinema. This momentum was broken by the fall of the USSR, when many cinemas closed. Nevertheless, cinema remains a popular art, and some filmmakers manage to attract the crowds with local successes. Recently, the documentary filmmaker Byambasuren Davaa(The Story of the Weeping Camel, 2003; The Two Horses of Genghis Khan, 2009) or filmmakers such as Uranchimeg Nansal(Golden Treasure, 2016), Byamba Sakhya(Bedridden, 2020) are giving a new impetus to Mongolian cinema, even if the network of cinemas has not succeeded in rebuilding itself. As a proof, Ulaanbaatar has only one cinema, the Urgoo, dating from 1989. But don't let that stop you from pushing the doors open and discovering its impressive façade.
