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Text: Luca BetiIssue: 02/2022

A dream comes true: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir will start shooting for her first feature film in autumn this year. The Mongolian director also has the Open Doors section at the Locarno Film Festival to thank for this. The film festival is an initiative supported by the SDC and it has been backing independent cinema in countries in Eastern Europe and the Global South.

The Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (middle) during a film shoot in her country. ©zVg
The Mongolian director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (middle) during a film shoot in her country. ©zVg

"It's a fantastic feeling to know that I will begin shooting for my first feature film in September. I've been working on this for five years," says Lkhagvadulam (or Dulmaa) Purev-Ochir. The film director, who was born in Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar in 1989 and is currently living close to Lisbon, says excitedly, "When I was in my twenties and thirties, I was expected to marry, have children, get a secure job and a home. But I've always also wanted to make films."

Dulmaa pursued her dream tenaciously. After graduating in film direction in 2012, she taught at the Mongolian School of Film, Radio and Television and at the Institute of Cinematography. In 2018, she earned a European Kino Eyes Master (KEM) in screenwriting. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Lusófona University in Lisbon and has recently become a mother.

"Money alone doesn't bring a film to life"

The Open Doors focus region from 2019 to 2021 was South East Asia and Mongolia, so Dulmaa applied to the international co-production platform Open Doors Hub with her script. The platform selects projects that are sufficiently mature and ready to move to the funding phase. "I assumed that it would do if I could somehow cobble together the money for my film," remembers Dulmaa. But her project was not considered developed enough to make the cut internationally. "It became clear to me only later that money alone doesn't bring a film to life."

After wrapping up a successful short film, Dulmaa will begin shooting for her first feature film Zé later this year. © zVg
After wrapping up a successful short film, Dulmaa will begin shooting for her first feature film Zé later this year. © zVg

But the jury did recognise her artistic talent and Dulmaa was invited to participate in the Open Doors Lab. Participants in the Lab benefit from training that is tailor-made for them. They are given the necessary tools to develop their ideas so that the films can hold their own on an international stage. In the summer of 2019, Dulmaa spent six days in Locarno that were packed with group discussions, screenings, one-on-one sessions and networking opportunities. "I learnt a lot from the filmmakers in South East Asia. They are tough fighters," she recalls. "Open Doors Lab is a very targeted programme. Everyone – the producers, the financiers and the trainers – have already worked in their region and so they really know how to help you."

First the short, then the feature

In Locarno, Dulmaa met two producers from Mongolia and France who believed in her project. They advised her to shoot a short film to give a taste of her feature film and to bolster her artistic credentials. She went ahead and filmed Mountain Cat in Ulaanbaatar for a month and half in the summer of 2019. The story is inspired by an experience she herself had as a 25-year-old. "In 2014, I visited a shaman called Uranbold. After our meeting, I was absolutely stunned to see that under Uranbold's shaman robes and head covering there was a 21-year-old man in jeans and T-shirt, covered in tattoos, who came and sat next to me and watched a video on his mobile phone." The man's double identity represents a Mongolia that holds on to its traditions while looking towards the future.

At the international co-production platform Open Doors Lab, which is part of the Locarno film festival, young directors have valuable opportunities to network. © Open Doors/Locarno
At the international co-production platform Open Doors Lab, which is part of the Locarno film festival, young directors have valuable opportunities to network. © Open Doors/Locarno

Mountain Cat was selected for the short film competition at the Cannes film festival in 2020 and was also screened at the Sundance festival in Utah (USA), and in Toronto, Turin, London, Busan and Tallinn. In 2020, her feature film project was finally selected by Open Doors Hub and won the grant for production support. "That was the first money for my project," she says. About 60% to 70% of the total production costs amounting to half a million euros have been covered so far.

"This September and October we plan to start shooting. We expect to wrap up the film in spring 2023," says Dulmaa. Open Doors will continue to support her at this decisive juncture of her project. "As soon as the film shooting is completed, I will ask for advice about editing and distribution," Dulmaa says. "If I am where I am today, it is also thanks to Open Doors."

Group discussions and screenings (above) equip filmmakers with the tools they need to one day present their finished films to large audiences at the Piazza Grande in Locarno. © Open Doors/Locarno
Group discussions and screenings (above) equip filmmakers with the tools they need to one day present their finished films to large audiences at the Piazza Grande in Locarno. © Open Doors/Locarno
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20 years of Open Doors

Open Doors was created in 2003 as a collaboration between the Locarno Film Festival and the SDC. The project has supported over 700 directors and 250 film projects from over 60 countries in 20 years. Today the Open Doors section is an integral part of the festival. It is the laboratory in which new forms of promoting cinema are experimented with, cultural boundaries are overcome, new talents are discovered, films are completed and finally presented. Open Doors facilitates meetings and future collaboration during the festival. It is active online 365 days a year to support creative freedom, diversity, inclusion, revitalisation and the future of independent cinema. It also functions as a forum to reflect on new avenues of distribution. In the geographical focus regions that are selected every three years, it gives preference to authentic forms of creative expression. The focus region for the next three years between 2022 and 2024 will be Latin America and the Caribbean

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