IMDb user comments for
Urga (1991)

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16 comments in total

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Hard-to-find Russian classic, 11 August 2005

Author: joesorce from Boston

One of the most beautiful and lyrical films that I have ever seen, one of those experiences where you walk into a theatre not knowing what to expect and walk out of the theatre wanting to drag everyone you've ever known into the theatre to see it.

I can't imagine why this Oscar-nominated film is not available on DVD but it's well worth your annual haul-out-the-VHS-player-one-more-time weekend look. At first you'll feel like you're eavesdropping on something very private, but by the end of the film you may wish that you were one of the family.

I don't' like to give away plot points when commenting on a movie, in fact I don't even like to watch previews-of-coming-attractions because they give away too much of the story. I like to walk into a movie blind, and trust me on this one, you'll be glad you made the journey.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Heavenly...well-deserved title Close To Eden, 1 April 2002

Author: drjude518 from Niagara Falls, ON

I watched this film for the first time several years ago and was riveted by it. Always expecting the worst to happen, I was sure that around every corner an unexpected calamity would befall these beloved characters. But none ever did! I was filled with elation from the first minute to the closing credits. Bubble wrap never looked so intriguing! The Mongolian Steppes never appeared so appealing. I just can't wait for this film to appear in DVD format. Along with the Milagro Beanfield War, I consider this film one of my all time favourites. Enjoy and be elated!

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
one of the few films that makes me believe in humanity, 6 August 1999

Author: peter-209 from Mississippi, USA

One of the best films I know: beautiful, pensive, playful, realistic, poetic, humane, up-lifting. In the barrage of trash, one of the few films that makes me believe in humanity. I love this film so much that I arranged home projections for my friends several times. With all the up beat that I am mentioning, it is very open and truthful. Where in an American movie could you see an on-screen slaughter of a real lamb? And it was not ugly or gory at all! On the contrary, it was very decent and sensitive, teaching us respect for Nature.

And another little point. Has anybody noticed the inconspicuous little voice-over at the end which essentially makes "Urga" science fiction?!

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the most beautifully humane movies ever., 11 January 1999

Author: Le Fafouin (elfafouin@hotmail.com) from Ottawa, Canada

I had to embrace my aunt after seeing this movie for having brought me to see it. The images are beautiful and the relationships are, at times, complex but always touching. Never have I experienced a filmmaker able to capture the beautiful humanity of each of his characters and their gestures. This film is a treasure and quite possibly my favorite film of all time.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
If you have ever wondered what visiting Mongolia ..... see this wonderful film first., 8 February 2000
Author: monabe from Tuross Head, Australia

Urga is an excellent example of the magic of film in allowing people of very different cultures to communicate their various realities and common humanity. To someone like myself coming from a "modern developed culture", I found this tale of a culture that has only recently experienced the impact of "western" society, an entrancing and wonderful experience. It is visually beautiful, frequently wildly funny and life-affirming. For an unusual and extremely accessible film experience - or as a primer for the intending visitor - Urga can be heartily recommended.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Timeless Beauty, 22 October 1998

Author: Johan Severijns from Rijswijk, the Netherlands

This movie shows us a world without any borders, laws. Just a bunch of people who live in a superb nature, which fills the wide moviescreen in its endless beauty. It reminds us, how far we are away from nature, from our roots of our ancesters. That's why I think this movie appeals the people from all over the world. And especially those who like the widescreen movies from John Huston to Visconti. Only for the superb shots you can see it over and over again. It's, without any doubt a timeless beaty

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Haunted by Grasses, 7 September 2001
Author: Chris_Middlebrow from Austin, Texas

The best definition I can give to movies I greatly admire is that they take me someplace I don't expect to go.

It can be a special location. It can be a special moment. It can be a special revelation.

CLOSE TO EDEN, as this movie has been titled in the United States, offers the entire combination. A 1992 Russian nominee for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the movie opens on the vast expanses of the steppes of Mongolia, where the setting initially is evocative of a certain timelessness. The historical instant cannot be ascertained confidently, even within an error margin of a few centuries. Nor do we know what the movie designs ultimately to tell us.

Such uncertainty begins to give way as a vehicle and visitor enter the scene and are involved in a mishap that results from first sleepiness and then fright. The nature of the vehicle and visitor narrow the reference epoch to an accuracy level of mere decades. From there, the plot leads to a likeable nuclear family of herders, to which a grandmother is attached. We follow their story and soon learn, humorously, when among the vast expanses of time it occurs.

The theme here is subtly...ecological...in three parts. The first part concerns the lifestyle of the family, and its sufficiency. The second part concerns the travel the father undertakes, and an assigned errand he seeks to accomplish in the course of that journey. The third part concerns the conclusion, where the issue of time again intervenes. There is in fact no timelessness, but rather its passage. The narrator in A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT is thus "haunted by waters." So, likewise, the ending of CLOSE TO EDEN is haunted by grasses.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A Plains like an Ocean., 28 June 2005
Author: (futures@exis.net) from Ronn Ives/FUTURES Antiques, Norfolk, VA.

"Close to Eden" (Russian, 1992): Living on the simple, harsh, flowing Steppes of China/Mongolia, we meet a traditional family. By the photography and music, it's clear from the start that we should to accept, if not admire, their difficult but very satisfying life. Yes, there are signs of contemporary urban society – the young son wears a baseball cap, the daughter plays the accordion, and the wife wants her husband to travel to the nearest city for condoms (they are already over the legal limit of children), and a television. Eventually in the position of helping a stranded Russian truck driver, the husband travels with him to an urban "center" and deals with "city" life. "Close to Eden" patiently mutates from a beautifully straight forward "document", to one full of symbols - not just the threat of encroaching urban blight, but reminders of their proud racial past. Eventually narrated by the fourth son (any more than two is illegal in rural China), and named after the great Genghis Khan, he completes the story long after his grandmother, parents, and original hut are gone.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the best movies of the 90's, 11 April 2008

Author: adipocea from Constanta,Romania

What Mikhalkov and his actors did here is unbelievable. I mean, let aside the immense value of this film, I keep wondering how did they do that? How the hack came such an idea to them, to make such a...how should I say, different, crazy, enormous movie ? How did they make those kids play such terrific performances?! Not one of them, but three...You will say that they weren't really uneducated kids from the steppes but educated kids with school that were just acting. Yeah, but how the hell can a kid from the city slip under the skin of a character that lives his entire life in the steppe?! And the performance of Vladimir Gostyukin is nothing less than BRILLIANT. Stands on the same level with the great performances of the great American and British actors, I mean Hanks, Hackman, Hopkins, etc. Oh, it was so easy to screw it up, this movie. A good straight old American movie with this theme would have been like this : the guys are living in the steppe, poetry, here comes the Russian, communication, friendship, then the balance is disturbed, violence come, outside forces that try to ruin the life of the characters, the characters fight, win, the Russian leaves, they say goodbye, they cry, last shot, the Russian appears at the horizon to see them again. Nothing like that in this movie. It is SOOO smart!!!!! Bravo for the Golden Lion, perfectly deserved!

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Nikita Mihalkov is the best thing that has ever happened to Film in the History of it. This man is so talented beyond belief., 23 January 2008

Author: ajrichmang from United States

Nikita Mihalkov is a god when it comes to film. The guy below me is probably a not very smart, Hollywood films are 20% good and the rest is garbage just like your comment. I have seen but a few good American films the rest is the same old crap. I would like to say that American films have no life its always the same. This film has an amazing plot with its twist and turns make it a master piece. I am just trying to get my point across but the policy won't let me have anything smalled than 10 lines. I would love to me Nikita Mihalkov and just let him know that he is such a great director. So please when you see this really try to learn to speak and understand the Russian language so you can actually grasp what the movies is all about and really suck in the meaning of it.

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