Jalainur

Friendship, exile and isolation emerge as the primary focus of Chinese director Zhao Ye’s subdued and quiet, yet strikingly beautiful film Jalainur, a Mongolian word that means "ocean like lake". After more than thirty years driving a train at the coal mines in inner Mongolia, the veteran Zhu is about to retire and return home. Zhu’s younger colleague Zhihong has problems accepting this, so he accompanies his mentor on the long journey back home. Moments of both intimacy and confrontation transpire between the men, who are different in both nature and dispositions.
The cold climate and the rugged landscape are expressed by the director, who has a keen eye for how the feeling of melancholy can be created through the expressionistic effect and extreme long-shots of pristine nature. The paradoxical of the clash between the forces of nature and human civilisation are expressed, like the children playing football on a frozen lake, or men playing basketball on a desolated plain. Zhao Ye also lets the camera linger for a long time on the flight of a plastic tarpaulin – dancing in the wind it reminds us of Zhu’s increasing awareness of the transience of time and life at the end of an epoch. lab