Tuya’s Marriage

It sounds like the plot of a Hollywood rom-com: a woman needs to divorce her handicapped husband so she can remarry a better provider, and thus goes through a succession of dates to find the right man. But this time, the story is set in bleak Inner Mongolia, and Tuya (the lovely Yu Nan) is caring for her husband, two children and 100 sheep. So much for the romantic comedy… Director Quanan Wang, working from a script by Wei Lu (who wrote Chen Kaige’s popular Farewell My Concubine), creates a seemingly authentic portrait of hard-scrabble lives and the desperate pursuit of even the faintest glimmer of relief. The vivid cinematography by German Lutz Reitemeier compliments Wang’s fluid Western style of Eastern storytelling.

Shelf Talk: A wide run at arthouses in major cities brought targeted attention to this winner of the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear. Those who missed it but caught the more well-known Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005), also set in Mongolia, are likely to appreciate this occasionally moving saga. Nan’s appearance in this summer’s Speed Racer probably won’t help, but MPI promises national advertising and publicity to support the release, which piggybacks the theatrical run.