QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM TALLINN

Silence prevails. The city is still, the driver is voiceless, and the dead dare not speak.

At 138 minutes, Silent City Driver takes viewers on fascinating tour of the vast and quiet streets of Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital. Despite the urban environment, there is a lingering sense of emptiness and solitude. Myagmar (Tuvshinbayar Amartuvshin) has been released from prison after finishing a 14-year-sentence. He lands a job with the local funeral home. He drives a large and luxurious hearse, taking the recently deceased to their final resting place. The introverted man has few friends, and barely communicates with his clients. Presumably, doing time took a major toll on his social skills and also on his health. Both physically and psychologically. He suffers from depression, while also regularly visiting the local hospital for dialysis.

Mostly dressed in black, tall and scrawny, with a pale and elongated face, and tinted shades, Myagmar cuts a Marilyn Manson-esque figure (minus the grotesquerie). His thoughts are sombre and sordid. While successfully reintegrating with society from a functional perspective (he has a job, and some financial stability) upon finishing his prison stint, the poor man fails to find joy and redemption. In fact, he continues to feel imprisoned. This is aided by the fact that his mother – the only human being to whom he had some sort of affiliation – died while he was inside. He finds brief moments of liberation listening to Etienne Daho’s Comme un Boomerang on his earphones, or alone in the precarious shackle he calls home. This happens four or five times in the film. Just like its title suggests, the song keeps coming and going, and offering him fleeting moments of liberation.

His life begins to improve after the befriends an 18-year-old Buddhist monk (Bat-Erdene Munkhbat), who takes the passenger seat in one of his journeys to the cemetery. Myagmar turns to his religious friend in the hope to find balance. Her asks: “how do you reach atonement?”. Myagmar also becomes gently infatuated with the young and beautiful Saruul (Narantsetseg Ganbaatar), the daughter of the coffin business owner. The very dissonant trio go out in town together, and even to a music club. They share some sort of tacit complicity. Myagmar sat 14 years in a prison, the monk sat 12 years in a monastery, while the young woman remains imprisoned by a deep sadness she is unable to vocalise. She possesses many secrets, including one that will cause a major tragedy, leaving Myagmar scrambling to put the puzzle pieces together, and bring about some sort of justice and closure.

Dogs also play a central roles. It is with his canine companions that Myagmar is most relaxed. He keep a literal pack of such creatures in his house, which he rescued from the streets. Most of them roam freely, with the cage acquiring an extra purpose and significance at the end of the story. Animals are loyal, while humans are unreliable beasts, 48-year-old Mongolian filmmaker Sengedorj Janchivdorj seems to suggest.

Subtle elements and symbolisms come together in order to create a poetic tour-de-force. Corpses wear the most beautiful make-up. In some ways, they are more vain than the living. Wood feels like silk. You can almost hear it if you lay your ears gently against its surface. Saruul asks Myagmar about the reason he went to prison, but he refuses to talk about the past. She then enquires the young monk about the afterlife, but he refuses to talk about the future. So she indulges in the present, by undressing and taking a dip in the lake. Past, present and future become intertwined as our three protagonists seek to bond and complement one another.

The cinematography boasts simple and effective tricks. A music-induced orgasm is filmed from above just as the gentle snow collapses. Myagmar and the monk converse at night under a tree just as a gently-shifting green light gives the conversation a sense of movement. This is a vastly hypnotic and enjoyable film experience. These images are guaranteed to haunt you for some time.

Silent City Driver just premiered in the Official Competition of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. A real must-see.