If Only I Could Hibernate

Original title: Baavgai Bolohson
Genre: Social drama
Director: Zoljargal Purevdash
Country: Mongolia, France, Switzerland, Qatar
Year of production: 2023
Czas: 98 min

Awards and nominations:
2023 Cannes Film Festival: nominated for Un Certain Regard Award
2023 Tokyo FILMeX: Audience Award
2023 El Gouna Film Festival: Best Actor – Battsooj Uurtsaikh
2024 Jerusalem Film Festival: Best International Debut – Special Mention
2024 Mons Love International Film Festival: Grand Prize and Cineuropa Prize
2025 Mongolia’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category of the 97th Academy Awards

Ulzii, a resourceful teenage boy, lives with his alcoholic mother and younger siblings in Ulan Bator. Although his life in the capital of Mongolia means coping with unimaginable poverty, he doesn’t give up and keeps supporting his family and fighting for a scholarship he’s been dreaming of. When his mother leaves for work, and taking care of his brother and sister becomes a growing burden, Ulzii feels forced to get an illegal job, thus risking his education and better future. Deprived of any support, he needs to grow up quicker than he should. In her feature directorial debut, Zoljargal Purevdash ponders lack of choice in extreme situations, but she doesn’t lose hope. The director goes down the memory lane: she spent her childhood in Ulan Bator as well, where thanks to her talent to maths she received a prestigious scholarship. Purevdash looks back at her past with the help of fictional characters. It’s a moving film that takes viewers to a completely different world and lets them fully appreciate Ulzii’s relentlessness.


Author: Jan Tracz

Director:
Zoljargal Purevdash – Mongolian director up until now known for her short films. “If Only I Could Hibernate” is her feature directorial debut which premiered in Cannes in 2023. Thus, Purevdash became the first Mongolian filmmaker to have been chosen for the main selection of the French festival.

   subtitles in Polish and English