The Film That Took Me Back to the Steppe

The film is called If Only I Could Hibernate (2023), from Mongolia. I found it because of a song—Баавгай Болохсон. The song is light, but the film isn’t. It follows a boy dragging bags of coal through snow-covered streets with his younger siblings. He won’t ask for help, not even when they run out of heating. He wants to be a bear in his next life—strong, warm, not human. No dramatic plot twists, just slow sorrow. Long takes and throat singing. Some say it feels excessive, but I grew up in Inner Mongolia. The sound of khoomii doesn’t feel ornamental to me. It feels like home—vast, cold, and quietly aching. #entertainment #movie #quietcomingofage