Urga / Close to Eden [NTSC][English, Subtitles]

An excellent movie for a humourous and thought provoking look at our own preconceptions and misconceptions. At every turn the movie takes us on a journey of surprises, from the opening scene which leads us to immediately think we are looking at "barbarians", then, mainly through the eyes of the Russian lorry driver who gets stuck on the Mongolian steppe and gradually befriends his Nomadic Mongolian hosts, the barbarians turn out to be much more civilised than he is, perhaps than we are. The attention to detail is fabulous, displaying the cultural wisdom, love and warmth of the Nomads, their real humanity winning over imposed communist ideological ideals and Western anonymity and disconnection from nature.Very funny at times, which highlights the pathos at others. For example, the Nomad kills a sheep in honour of the Russian stranger, now his guest, with one tiny cut and with warmth and humanity he squeezes the aorta for a minute with his own fingers until the sheep passes away. I am a vegetarian because of factory farming methods and animal welfare, but this movie is worth seeing just for that scene. Nomads have to keep a herd to eat and they are valued and treated with respect at every stage of their lives, and then every part of the animal is used by the family, nothing discarded.Through the lens of 2 different cultures, Mongolian and Russian, the French filmmaker challenges our cultural blinkers and opens us to a good place of humourous acceptance of cultural differences, ultimately making you feel the things we all have in common rather than our differences.There are so many reasons why I love this movie! It is beautifully shot in stunning landscapes and contrasting urban settings, (though the quality of the DVD isn't top notch, sadly - I'd like to see this on BluRay). I wondered if it has been edited since it first came out? There seem to be a couple of scenes missing. I thought I remembered a long time ago seeing the corpse of the "Sky Burial" uncle. But it's not in this version. No matter, you get the picture. If you want to see what's so shocking but profound about Sky Burial look at this, (NOT for the faint hearted!) http://imgur.com/a/ddTMd

Funny,informative and beautiful landsacapes.I have it listed as one of my favourate world movies.The story of a hispitable Mongolian family living in the desert who offer hospitality to a Russian truck driver who breaks down in the wilderness.

Thank you for the prompt serviceI am pleased, Urga is available as a DVDI saw it many years ago in the movies andliked it. Happy to have it in my librart now.Good quality

Dont what ever you do buy this -- My Youngest daughter bought me this out of her birthday money ---I helped her choose it ---I've seen this film before and it's good ---The film quality is awful -- like a 3rd or 4th generation video copy --- yes it has english subtitles but the voice over in Russian is so badly done --with inapprpriate voices...Please dont buy this -- try and get a decent copy.

This DVD I believe is a Russian language copy where Russian has been fairly badly dubbed over the original Mongolian soundtrack. This is one of my favorite films and I already have a similar copy but for me the Russian dubbing spoils the film somewhat.

A loop of rope on the end of a long pole,I presume for catching livestock.Yet-when stuck upright in open landscape- indicates two people are engaged in sex.Husband and wife,their three children and a grandmother live together in a yurt in the countryside.The husband wants sex,but the wife does not want another child.She sends him off to get condoms.Instead,he returns with a TV and TV aerial ! The ending seems daft,with fantasy Mongol warriors and the planting of the pole.There is a side story of the family befriending a man whose lorry has stuck on a riverbank.

Happy with the movie

A masterpiece of film making, a visual delight -I have seen this at the cinema: one of my favourite films!

One of the best copy of this wonderful movie I've sen so far, indeed..

Service was fast.I have waited a long time to find this movie on dvd with english subtitles and as promised this dvd has English subtitles. Unfortunately this version of Urga also has a Russian overdub with no separate audiotrack. It was a trilingual experience listening the the mongolian, russian and reading the english subtitles. It detracted from what is a really great movie.

The life of the Mongolian people is a world apart from ours. For a start they LIVE on horseback. Their horses are smaller than ours but they certainly can move.This film, in Russian, Chinese and Mongolian shows an aspect of life utterly different from ours and is worth viewing for that reason alone. It shows the reaction of a stranded Russian lorry driver who finds himself unable to drive his vehicle which is stuck in the mud and how the locals befriend him and ultimately rescue his vehicle.An unusual and very worth while film.Recommended.

there was no mention of the fact that it is dubbed in Russian and I can't figure out how to make that go away. I've always loved the film, but in Mongolian with English subtitles, not in Mongolian and dubbed into Russian... not one of my languages