IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE
Join us after the screenings for a Q&A with actor Batzorig Sukhbaatar.
Zoljargal Purevdash’s affecting and personal portrayal of poverty in Mongolia follows Ulzii (newcomer Battsooj Uurtsaikh), a gifted teen with a penchant for physics. He lives in a yurt with his mother and three younger siblings on a compound outside of Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar. After his mother (who is illiterate and suffers from alcoholism) is unable to find any work in the city, she heads to the countryside with the youngest of her children, leaving Ulzii to care for his two siblings in the dead of winter. Ulzii struggles to keep the yurt’s furnace stocked with coal and is forced to get criminally creative to keep his siblings warm. Simultaneously, the young mathematician is encouraged by his teacher-turned-mentor to enter a life-changing physics competition that could earn him a university scholarship. Forced to choose between his family’s survival and the pursuit of his wildest dreams, Ulzii makes unimaginable sacrifices in an attempt to make both realities coexist. Setting a winning tale reminiscent of films like GOOD WILL HUNTING against a bleak Mongolian winter as its backdrop, IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE highlights the plight of one determined teen on the brink of an uncertain future.
CAST: Battsooj Uurtsaikh, Nominjiguur Tsend, Tuguldur Batsaikhan, Batmandakh Batchuluun
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