One of the most lasting images of the movie we watched tonight is the confusing daydream that served as the climax of the film. Confusing in its lack of transitions, the daydream is presented nearly uninterrupted within the rest of the film’s narrative. The only indication of the start of the daydream is a pan into the television that is set up powerless within the landscape of the Mongolian steppe.

The daydream is one that is violent and startling. Our main character is battling with having to prove himself as an “authentic” Mongolian. The character encounters a troop of Mongol soldiers in traditional garb as if they were out of Genghis Khan’s army. Most notably, these troops are on horseback, as our main character is on the bicycle which he bought in town. The main character is easily tracked down on his bike, and is immediately asked, “where is your horse?” to which our character replies, “over there.” The soldiers don’t believe our main character, probably because of his adoptions of modernity in his bicycle and his newly modern hat compared to the netting he was wearing earlier in the movie.

The day dream brings up one of the fundamental tensions within the movie and within our main character: do adaptations of modernity diminish some of his more traditional Mongolian ways-of-life?  Of course, at the end, yes, they do with the creation of the factory where his house was. However, for this character, is modernization an assimilating force or is development for a betterment of life? Our character resists modernity in some respects, most notably with his refusal to buy condoms. However, the question lingers is modernity a tragedy?