SUKHEE ARIUNBYAMBA IN TRAVESTY

BAATAR BATSUKH: TRAVESTY (2024) New York Asian Film Festival 2025

Batsukh has crafted an atmospheric crime story out of the minimal material of the Mongolian outback, making great use, tactical but also visual, of the spaces and the stark structures that sparsely inhabit them. (The director was also the cinematographer, as for his previous films.) A hospital is on the square, which for all we can tell is empty, on a square, also, visibly empty provide the scene. A few people inhabit it. The film iself is an ingenious filling up of empty spaces as well. The filmmaker has a strong pollitical bent and aims for nothing so much as to scold the government for its indifference to the people and its general incompetence.

A disgruntled kid occupies the hospital. He announces he is holding the 19 patients hostage and demanding a ransom. of 1 billion Mongolian tugrik a person. The tension is at a fevrer pitch when he threatens to kill one prisoner an hour until the ransom money is paid. A police captain is summoned from the city, Davaa (Sukhee Ariunbyamba), who has authority and takes charge, except that he has no authority over anybody and none of the local police and officials care about the situation. Captain Davaa appeals to town, then city, then nation, then state, and the catch is that as he goes higher, the human being is more petty, cowardly, selfish, and irresponsible. No one has as much chutzpah or soul as Davaa, back where it all started. That is the point. Some writing about this film criticize it for its over-politicization of the plot. But that is the point. This film is a transsparent attack on the government. There is some beauty in the simiplicity of it. We get a picdture of how plain things may see to you if you live in Mongolia, or this remote a part of it.

Some of the scenes take place in the local police station, which in addition to being ostensible headquqrters for the hostage negotiations, winds up hosting a woman about the give birth, and a discheveled man who is her husband, and also the local math teacher. The only doctor in the beseiged hosital is allowed out to attend the pregnant woman, and gives some picture of what is going on.

It's also fun that what takes place in the plot parallels what the filmmaker himself is doing, which is faking us out. Spoiler alert: the big takeover of the hospital for ransom isn't. The victimes that get their heads blown apart don't. Spoiler alert: it's just a kid, with an automatic weapon nd a bold pln. LIkewise with Travesty. The filmkaker's aim is to use minimal means to keep us entertined and think we're seeing a bold rural crime played out. With minimal means. What stand out here are the visuals, which are striking, and make good use of the natural environment, half city, half desert. Some of the acting is not bad either. This was pointed out in the Screen Daily review by Nikki Baughan, who adds that for locals, the presence of Mongolian pop star Daviadasha, aka Ariunbold Ganbold, in the role of Bayraa also added flavor. But she correctly explains the central role of the city cop who comes in and dominatersthe scene. "The big city cop in the provincial town is a well-used trope, and Sukhee plays it effectively," she writes, "his gruff, world-weary demeanour and casual attitude suggesting that his superior authority can outwit these outback hicks." That changes a bit when he discovers that his adversary in the hospital has the same criticisms of the government as he does, and (spoiler alert again) they arrive at an amicable agreement.

An enjoyable and absorbing film with striking visuals and its own unique regional atmosphere.

Travesty, 78 mins., premiered at Busan Oct. 3, 2024. Screened for this review as part of the Jul. 11-27, 2025 New York Asian Film Festival. Showtime:
aturday July 26, 4:00pm
SVA Theatre
2025 NYAFF Uncaged Award Nominee. Intro and Q&A with director Baatar Batsukh and producers Alexa Khan and Trevor Doyle

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.