The Country of Triple Time, Mongolia : Czechoslovak Film Testimony from the Mid-1960s
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In summer 1965 a Czechoslovak film crew made a film in Ulaanbaatar (construction of a hospital, lambskin manufacture etc.); they were also shooting in Darkhan, Erdene Dzuu and Gandan (meeting with Bandido Khambolama) as well as in other places. The filmmakers captured extraordinary events, like a flood in the capital city, but also everyday life. The main purpose of the film was to show the Czechoslovak industrial and technological help to Mongolia. This was not the first color film material taken by Czechoslovaks in Mongolia. The first one was the material for the preparation of a film by Lumir Jisl of 1958 (the film has never been shown officially). Thus, the movie The Country of Triple Time of 1965 was the first professional film project. The twenty-four-minute movie is unique in many respects. It forms a part of visual history of Mongolia and is an ample supplement to similar Czechoslovak activities, such as the photographic documentation of Tsam masks and other museum artifacts by Werner Forman (a book made in cooperation with Byambin Rinchen was published), or cooperation of the photographer Leos Nebor with Mongolian Press Agency in 1957. A screening of the movie in an international Mongolian studies conference will not only present a “visual document of its time” but should also initiate a discussion of the topic. For instance, a Polish film of 1958 (Stanislaw Szwarc-Bronikowski) points out that Czechoslovaks were not the first to contribute to visual documentation of Mongolia prior to year 1965, when the country opened up to western tourists. A public screening of the movie is a small incentive to opening the topic and its reflection by academic audience. |
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