Iron Winter: Cold realities of Mongolian herder life warmed by youthful innocence

The documentary follows Batbold (18) and Tsagana (22) on their 150-day quest to herd 1,000 wild horses across the Mongolian steppe during a particularly severe ‘iron winter’. 

It’s a bitter-sweet story of two young men falling in love with an ancient tradition whilst coming to terms with its fragility in the face of globalisation.

More broadly, it’s about the isolation of rural communities and their fight for relevance in increasingly city-dwelling world. Indeed, one of their fathers foreshadows their possible fates having given up physical, tumultuous herder life for a more predictable wage in the city, despite his deep affection for the countryside and the crushing alienation he feels away from it.

Repeater Productions, in their first feature-length doc, tell this tragedy well, but it’s the more intimate portrait of the two protagonists that stays with you. 

Batbold and Tsangana are full of life and a love for their countryside and the horses in their care. They take this brutal task in their stride and in fact seem completely at ease with the extreme discomforts they face. 

Contrary to the overarching themes of the film of change, turmoil and uncertainty, it’s enjoyable to watch two young men seemingly so content and comfortable in themselves. The filmmakers imagined a film concerned with the problems of the future, but instead found subjects living somewhat contentedly in the present. 

That is not to underplay the significance of the socio-economic challenges they face which, as the film makes clear, are very real. But just to say that the film may have benefited by giving these two joyful characters more prominence. 

In the end, this ‘iron winter’ might have been thawed by the warmth of youthful innocence. 

5/10