Operation Tatar
Slickly made bank robbery comedy that's far from the traditional image of Mongolian-set movies. Asian and genre festivals, plus niche TV.
Story
Ulaanbaatar, the present day. East-West Bank employee Taivnaa (Borkhuu Amarkhuu) is sacked from his job but keeps the news secret from his wife Khandaa (Ch. Undral). Their young daughter Anuka (B. Khulan) has brain cancer and Taivnaa urgently needs money to pay for her treatment. In desperation he hooks up with an old friend, onetime boxer and policeman-turned-petty criminal Tulgaa (Ganbold Erdenebileg) and proposes robbing the bank of US$1.5 million of black money that its corrupt CEO and executive director have stored in cash in the vault as part of an illegal scam. Tulgaa, who fancies himself as an old-fashioned Mongolian hero, dubs the robbery Operation Tatar. He recruits Kolya (Enkhtaivan Batkhuu), a crazed half-Russian, as their driver and Gyalbaa (Dagvazhamts Batsukh), Mongolia's top hacker, as their computer specialist to crack the digitally-encoded vault. Tulgaa constructs a precisely-timed scheme that involves smuggling the money out via a ventilation shaft, but on the day itself nothing goes to plan.
Review
With its urban caper-crime plot, slick editing and visual effects, a soundtrack that includes local rap, and the rich images and acres of product placement, Operation Tatar hardly seems like your average Mongolian movie. But exaggerated as it is in its own comic way — as four misfits plan a bank robbery that doesn't go to plan — it gives a much truer picture of contemporary Mongolian life than the noble-nomads-on-grasslands films beloved of foreign filmmakers and documentarians. Producing through his own company Hero Entertainment, whose activities include video clips and entertainment show parties, director Bat-Ulzii Baatar has followed his first feature, hit rom-com I Love You 2 (Би чамд хайртай-2, 2009), with a movie that should help to establish mainstream Mongolian film-making on a par with other small Asian industries.
Coming in at a tight 90 minutes, Tatar doesn't waste much time on its more formulary sub-plot of the central character's daughter dying of cancer. The four leads are up front and centre during most of the running time, and their screen chemistry — driven by a robust performance from Ganbold Erdenebileg as Tulgaa, a beefy ex-cop who fancies himself as a modern Tatar warrior — holds the movie together without devolving into simply a series of comedy sketches. For a film that's actually more about the planning of a robbery than the robbery itself, Baatar comes up with inventive ways to hold the audience's interest, starting with an introduction that shows two endings (one false, the other true) and then peppering the long planning with B&W inserts of how Tulgaa imagines the actual robbery could go. These include everything from demolishing the guards with (well-staged) martial arts moves to shagging the bank's glamorous secretary: for Tulgaa, the robbery is as much about proving his warrior spirit as making a pile of money.
Though Tatar's film-making language is international, its spirit is utterly Mongolian, both sending up the country's tourist image and playing into its sense of a free-ranging culture that's been lost by modern urbanisation (at least in the capital, Ulaanbaatar). The central character of sacked bank employee Taivnaa represents the contemporary, suit-wearing salaryman, Tulgaa the hot-blooded free spirit who's turned to petty crime and bottled spirit, half-Russian driver Kolya the country's lingering Slavic influences, and nerdy computer hacker Gyalbaa the modern age. Together they don't seem capable of robbing an old lady, let alone a bank vault — but the neatly-dovetailed script keeps the audience on its toes.
The movie dips slightly just before the start of the actual robbery an hour in, but in general the pacing is lively without becoming frantic. Russian camera operator Aleksei Strelov deserves a special mention for his smooth handling of the Red One equipment.
Story
Ulaanbaatar, the present day. East-West Bank employee Taivnaa (Borkhuu Amarkhuu) is sacked from his job but keeps the news secret from his wife Khandaa (Ch. Undral). Their young daughter Anuka (B. Khulan) has brain cancer and Taivnaa urgently needs money to pay for her treatment. In desperation he hooks up with an old friend, onetime boxer and policeman-turned-petty criminal Tulgaa (Ganbold Erdenebileg) and proposes robbing the bank of US$1.5 million of black money that its corrupt CEO and executive director have stored in cash in the vault as part of an illegal scam. Tulgaa, who fancies himself as an old-fashioned Mongolian hero, dubs the robbery Operation Tatar. He recruits Kolya (Enkhtaivan Batkhuu), a crazed half-Russian, as their driver and Gyalbaa (Dagvazhamts Batsukh), Mongolia's top hacker, as their computer specialist to crack the digitally-encoded vault. Tulgaa constructs a precisely-timed scheme that involves smuggling the money out via a ventilation shaft, but on the day itself nothing goes to plan.
Review
With its urban caper-crime plot, slick editing and visual effects, a soundtrack that includes local rap, and the rich images and acres of product placement, Operation Tatar hardly seems like your average Mongolian movie. But exaggerated as it is in its own comic way — as four misfits plan a bank robbery that doesn't go to plan — it gives a much truer picture of contemporary Mongolian life than the noble-nomads-on-grasslands films beloved of foreign filmmakers and documentarians. Producing through his own company Hero Entertainment, whose activities include video clips and entertainment show parties, director Bat-Ulzii Baatar has followed his first feature, hit rom-com I Love You 2 (Би чамд хайртай-2, 2009), with a movie that should help to establish mainstream Mongolian film-making on a par with other small Asian industries.
Coming in at a tight 90 minutes, Tatar doesn't waste much time on its more formulary sub-plot of the central character's daughter dying of cancer. The four leads are up front and centre during most of the running time, and their screen chemistry — driven by a robust performance from Ganbold Erdenebileg as Tulgaa, a beefy ex-cop who fancies himself as a modern Tatar warrior — holds the movie together without devolving into simply a series of comedy sketches. For a film that's actually more about the planning of a robbery than the robbery itself, Baatar comes up with inventive ways to hold the audience's interest, starting with an introduction that shows two endings (one false, the other true) and then peppering the long planning with B&W inserts of how Tulgaa imagines the actual robbery could go. These include everything from demolishing the guards with (well-staged) martial arts moves to shagging the bank's glamorous secretary: for Tulgaa, the robbery is as much about proving his warrior spirit as making a pile of money.
Though Tatar's film-making language is international, its spirit is utterly Mongolian, both sending up the country's tourist image and playing into its sense of a free-ranging culture that's been lost by modern urbanisation (at least in the capital, Ulaanbaatar). The central character of sacked bank employee Taivnaa represents the contemporary, suit-wearing salaryman, Tulgaa the hot-blooded free spirit who's turned to petty crime and bottled spirit, half-Russian driver Kolya the country's lingering Slavic influences, and nerdy computer hacker Gyalbaa the modern age. Together they don't seem capable of robbing an old lady, let alone a bank vault — but the neatly-dovetailed script keeps the audience on its toes.
The movie dips slightly just before the start of the actual robbery an hour in, but in general the pacing is lively without becoming frantic. Russian camera operator Aleksei Strelov deserves a special mention for his smooth handling of the Red One equipment.
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