Silent City Driver (reviewed here) was not only the best film of the Black Nights Film Festival but also one of the best films of 2024. The director, Sengedorj Janchivdor, did not attend the festival since he was shooting a new film in Mongolia. However, I managed to talk to the cinematographer, Enkhbayar Enkhtur and the Co-scriptwriter and First assistant director, Nomuunzul Turmunkh. The first topic was cinematography.
The Disapproving Swede: This is your first feature with Sengedorj Janchivdor. How did it happen?
Enkhbayar Enkhtur: After I graduated from university as a cinematographer, I’ve been in the profession for 15 years. I made some shorts with the director. In Mongolia, a DOP is a new profession, and I try to learn all the time.
TDS: The cinematography of the film is striking. What were the ideas from you and the director? It has an arthouse feel, but not in a stale, boring way.
EE: Thank you. As a relative newbie, I wanted to try some new things, with the angles and otherwise. The director allowed this, and we worked well together.
TDS: It is a cold film in many ways. It is quite cruel, but beauty is still there and strongly connected to the main character, Myagmar.
EE: The narrative follows the main character all the time. The purpose was to get the audience to live with this character. That’s why I chose those angles that people may not be used to: from below, above and behind. To create an atmosphere where the spectator feels that he lives with this character.
TDS: I want to ask about a specific shot with the tree by the river and with a particular camera movement. How did you shoot that, and do you see a meaning there more than the one connected to the philosophical dialogue in that scene?
EE: It was about giving the sensation of going down to the darker underworld. I wanted this to happen, and I discussed it with the director. We were looking for the right location and found this river with that tree.
TDS: So, it’s a real tree? I was wondering about that since it had a kind of otherworldly feel and felt a bit artificial, also due to the lighting.
EE: Yes, it was a real tree. We set the lighting on that big tree, with some lights below as well, and wanted the visuals to mirror the dialogue as much as possible.
TDS: Which camera did you use, and which lenses?
EE: It was an Arri Alexa 35 used with some Carl Zeiss lenses. I especially remember that scene of the road that occurs a few times in the film, shot from a faraway hill with a really strong lens.
The interview approaches Nomuunzul Turmunkh
TDS: How did you approach the colours while shooting and in the post-production?
Nomuunzul Turmunkh: We searched for a colour grader who understood our feelings and looked for some time. In Mongolia, there are some colour graders, and they have a kind of glossy, commercial style. Eventually, we found a French guy who understood what we wanted.
TDS: You wrote the script with the director. What were the initial ideas?
NT: The producer approached me and asked me to write a script about Buddhist philosophy, including karma and immortality. He also said that he wanted Sengedorj [Janchivdor] to direct the film. I discussed it with the director, and we came to that kind of solution: okay, let’s talk about this character’s life because he’s facing death every day. Also, with this character, we can express our society. It’s exclusion, suicide, social isolation and everything. So, we started working on the script together.
TDS: You have worked together before, no?
NT: Yes, we worked together on the director’s previous film, The Sales Girl.
TDS: That one was screened in Estonia as well, in that festival in Tartu [Tartu Love Film Festival Tartuff]
NT: Yes, and it won the Audience Award.
TDS: Can you talk a bit about the main character, Myagmar? The prison sentence has shaped his life in many ways.
NT: The protagonist has been in jail for 14 years. He’s got really deep scars, physically and mentally. When he is released, he is not socially accepted. He decides to face it by withholding his anger and other negative feelings. That is the idea of karma, which can change a person’s life. We worked on the script a lot. It was a long process, around a year. Then, we had the pre-production with Enkhbayar and the 1production designer, which lasted for almost half a year, going through every detail in the film.
TDS: Finally, the Serge Gainsbourg song adds immensely to the film’s ambience. What made you choose that song?
NT: NT: The director was searching for the right song for a while. He didn’t want to compose a new song; instead, he wanted to choose some old and forgotten song which would align with the character’s lost and forgotten world. One day, he listened to Serge Gainsbourg’s Boomerang, sent me the link, and said, “This is the one”. He asked me to get the rights to the song. Also, Serge sang the song so carelessly, but deep down, you feel the sadness and loneliness. So, this song can fully represent the protagonist’s world.
- The production designer was Munkhbat Shirnen, who won the PÖFF Award for Best Production Design. ↩︎