(Mongolia/Germany/2006/Directed by Byambasuren Davaa)

The Cave of the Yellow Dog is the story of Nansal, a six-year-old nomadic girl living in south central Siberia. By day Nansal rides her pony and plays with her dog in a mountainscape of otherworldly beauty; at night she reads and listens to stories while her mother cooks dinner inside the warmth of their tapestry-lined yurt (round tent). Writer/director Byambasuren Davaa grew up in the Altai before attending film school in Berlin, eventually stunning European festival audiences with The Story of the Weeping Camel, an Academy-Award nominated film that blended fictional narrative and documentary technique with the ultimate scene stealing four-legged cast.

Simple and utterly timeless, The Cave of the Yellow Dog is nothing less than a gift, a shaggy-dog story told with playful Buddhist lessons, and a sense of wonder impossible to generate by computer animation. In Mongolian with English subtitles. (93 min.)

"The perfect antidote to overprocessed entertainment for all ages." -Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News