"Nomad Meets the City" Free Film Screening

This engaging documentary explores the lives of one family in Mongolia that reveal larger cultural and societal shifts with lasting impacts.

Former herder Tumurbaatar works tirelessly as a garbage truck driver in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, striving to better his daughter’s education and compete in the modern economy. The pressures of distance and separation take a toll as he is torn between life in the city and his home and family in a small rural town.

Tumurbaatar’s wife, Tungaa, is a doctor in the countryside who maintains her roots and helps tend the family herd. Her husband’s visits home reveal fault lines in their marriage and their cultural identities. They both speak romantically about retiring as true nomads, but she sees what he does not: his nomadic roots are already lost to the city. In spite of it all, they cling fast to dreams for their children to lead lives they cannot.

Half of Mongolia’s population now lives in the capital city, marking a  transformation from traditional to modern and rural to urban in a shared story of the human race. Film director Anji Sauvé Clubb will lead a Q&A with the audience after the film.

This film screening is part of the Takoma Park Arts event series organized by the City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division, which includes free film screenings, art exhibitions, concerts, theater, poetry readings, and dance performances. Please go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts and sign up for our e-newsletter to get more info about all of our upcoming events.