North American Premiere
Zoljargal Purevdash’s lively feature made a splash at this year’s Cannes, where it screened in the Un Certain Regard program and announced the arrival of a refreshing new voice in world cinema. Set in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, If Only I Could Hibernate tells a story of perseverance and courage. Batsooj Uurtsaikh plays Ulzii, a teen with a gift for physics who is encouraged to enter a national competition. The payoff for victory is sweet: a full-ride university scholarship and, eventually, the chance for Ulzii to lift his family out of crushing poverty.
Handsomely shot in ’Scope, Purevdash’s film unfolds in the classroom, the ice-cold outdoors, and the lateral confines of the family yurt. As usual for teen-centred films, the home is a place of bitter struggle; once Ulzii’s alcoholic mother (Ganchimeg Sandagdordorj) departs, that struggle is for basic subsistence. Amid the scramble for coal, medicine, and food, the protagonist has to master physics— a tall order indeed, but it makes for richly compelling cinema.
Battsooj Uurtsaikh, Nominjiguur Tsend, Tuguldur Batsaikhan, Batmandakh Batchuluun, Ganchimeg Sandagdorj
Mongolia/France/
Switzerland/Qatar
2023
Panorama
In Mongolian with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Frédéric Corvez, Maéva Savinien, Zoljargal Purevdash
Screenwriter
Zoljargal Purevdash
Cinematography
Davaanyam Delgerjargal
Editor
Alexandra Strauss
Production Design
Binderiya Munkhbat
Original Music
Johanni Curtet
Director
Zoljargal Purevdash
Zoljargal Purevdash is a Mongolian filmmaker who studied filmmaking at the University of Obirin, in Japan. Her short films were screened at Tampere Film Festival, Short Shorts Film Festival Asia, Open Doors Locarno Film Festival, etc. In 2021, her short film Stairs won the first prize at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival and entered the 94th Oscars Award. She is an alumnus of Talents Tokyo, Asian Film Academy, Locarno Open Doors, Torino Film Lab, and Berlinale Talents.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Delicatessen
Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet collaborated with Marc Caro on their first film, a breathlessly inventive and unexpectedly charming comedy about two young lovers evading a cannibal butcher in a post-apocalyptic France.
Democracy Under Siege
As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.
Everybody to Kenmure Street
This rousing documentary (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) never puts a foot wrong as it recreates a tense, prolonged stand-off between the police and the citizens of Glasgow when an Immigration Enforcement squad attempt to arrest two men from their homes.
Boyz n the Hood
Twenty-three-year-old writer-director John Singleton's groundbreaking portrait of three young men growing up in South Central is a film of integrity and compassion. It's a far richer portrait of Black lives than Hollywood's gangsta exploitation pics.
Romería
An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.