The title of the film "Urga" refers to a Mongolian stick with a lasso. This lasso is meant for hunting, but sometimes the stick is put into the ground of the Mongolian steppe as a sign that a man and woman are asking for some privacy.
At the beginning of the film the Urga is used in the last indicated way with a family expansion as the result. This family expansion becomes a problem in the light of Chinese one child policy (the film is situated in inner Mongolia, which is part of China). The woman sends her husband to the big city to buy condoms, and a road movie begins. En route the husband meets a Russian truck driver and they become friends.
The friendship between a Russian and a local reminds of "Dersu Uzala" (1975, Akira Kurosawa), except for the fact that in "Dersu Uzala" the local is a Siberian and in "Urga" it is a Mongolian. Just like in "Dersu Uzala" the habitat of the Russian is the city and the habitat of the Mongolian is the countryside / nature. Where "Dersu Uzala" is a highly philosophical movie, "Urga is more of a comedy showing the uneasiness of the lead characters when they are outside their natural habitat, however without making a fool of them. By the way both films share the dazzling beauty of the (Siberian respectively Mongolian) countryside.
At the end of the movie the husband comes home without condoms but with a television set. The programs on television turn out to be so boring that the television is rather a pro conception than an anti conception device. Just like in "All that heaven allows" (1955, Douglas Sirk) television can be no substitute for human relations.
At the end of the movie we see an Urga sticked in the ground changing into a factory chimney. This metamorphosis symbolises the advance of the cities at the expense of the countryside. For me this matamorphisis was as powerfull as the changing of a bone in a spaceship in "2001: a space odyssey" (1968, Stanley Kubrick)
At the beginning of the film the Urga is used in the last indicated way with a family expansion as the result. This family expansion becomes a problem in the light of Chinese one child policy (the film is situated in inner Mongolia, which is part of China). The woman sends her husband to the big city to buy condoms, and a road movie begins. En route the husband meets a Russian truck driver and they become friends.
The friendship between a Russian and a local reminds of "Dersu Uzala" (1975, Akira Kurosawa), except for the fact that in "Dersu Uzala" the local is a Siberian and in "Urga" it is a Mongolian. Just like in "Dersu Uzala" the habitat of the Russian is the city and the habitat of the Mongolian is the countryside / nature. Where "Dersu Uzala" is a highly philosophical movie, "Urga is more of a comedy showing the uneasiness of the lead characters when they are outside their natural habitat, however without making a fool of them. By the way both films share the dazzling beauty of the (Siberian respectively Mongolian) countryside.
At the end of the movie the husband comes home without condoms but with a television set. The programs on television turn out to be so boring that the television is rather a pro conception than an anti conception device. Just like in "All that heaven allows" (1955, Douglas Sirk) television can be no substitute for human relations.
At the end of the movie we see an Urga sticked in the ground changing into a factory chimney. This metamorphosis symbolises the advance of the cities at the expense of the countryside. For me this matamorphisis was as powerfull as the changing of a bone in a spaceship in "2001: a space odyssey" (1968, Stanley Kubrick)