Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Overall, this may not be that memorable a film, but one scene certainly is one I doubt you'll ever forget. I mean, how many of us have seen a camel give birth? Not only that, but labor for two days to get the young "colt" out, and then do it standing up? It's a very dramatic, intense five-minute scene, one I won't soon forget.For most of this film, however, not much happens yet it does have a certain appeal. I had read how fantastic the scenery was but, outside of the snow-capped mountains in the background, the terrain is flat and totally bleak. Living in this vast desert is almost depressing. Imagine living in that barren land year after year? For the family featured in this film, it didn't seem bad. They didn't know any other way of life and they seemed quite content.However, as we see near the end of the movie, not everyone in that area lives in a sturdy tent and raises sheep and camels. There is a store miles away and schools and music and dance classes, etc. The little boy in featured family is awed when he sees a television set. He wants one, of course. The grandpa tells the boy he'd just sit around and watch TV all day and that would be bad. In the end, though, the movie concludes with a shot of a huge satellite dish outside the tent! The story is basically about how the family figures out who to get the mother camel to nurse its young one and, yes, there is a happy ending.Summary: a likable film but you must be patient with it.

The Weeping Camel may not have the special effects or the attention-getting action of some Hollywood films, but it is a beautiful and not-to-be missed movie in its own right. Apart from being a documentary, it is full of symbolism and meaning that can be seen in the everyday routines around which the family of Mongolian shepherds have built their existence: the shearing of the camels' hair to braid into halters to put on the camels,showing how nothing is wasted; the sprinkling of milk into the air or onto the baby camel to ensure luck and appeasement of the nature spirits that is part of the Mongolian religion ; the storytelling and singing sessions inside the homely yurt. And, most remarkable of all and the highlight of the movie, the musical ritual consisting of a violinist on the horse-head fiddle and the woman's chanting designed to make the mother camel accept and suckle her newborn calf.The four generations of the family in the film, both genders and regardless of age (except for the youngest child who is around 1-2 years of age) work together doing everyday chores with an ease that suggests a contented acceptance of their way of living and the responsibilities that come with it. This is a culture in touch with the flow of life and nature in general, and the film shows links between the way the shepherds tend to their children and animals. It subtly but distinctly notes the way a leash keeps the toddler and baby camel from wandering off, similarly creating a connection between the lullaby a mother sings to put her child to sleep and the way violin music and chanting soothes a mother camel and charms her into accepting her rejected offspring. At first, the creature's response seems to be of the "what the. . . ?" variety, but then a magical transformation takes place as the musician plays on and the woman continues to sing and the family of shepherds watch expectantly. The effect that the music has on the other camels grazing nearby - watch their expressions, as if entranced - and eventually on the mother camel - Imgen Tenee as she is named in the credits - as she eventually gives in to suckle her baby and sheds tears as if in repentance of her erring ways is - as the Mastercard commercial would say - "priceless" Both moving and memorable, this sequence lies at the heart of the film, albeit close to the end, a moment of restoration as uplifting as anything I've encountered in recent years. Wisely, the producers of the movie take pains to avoid any anthropomorphizing or patronizing attitude, insisting every aspect should be seen through the shepherds' eyes as if the viewers were there right with them, sharing their joys, frustrations, victories, etc. The approach serves as a potent reminder that the simplest things can also be the most powerful and compelling.Throughout The Weeping Camel, Davaa and Falorni maintain an unobtrusive distance, allowing insights to emerge rather than thrusting them upon us. Most effectively, it allows us to discover the sharp contrast between the simple uncomplicated nomadic pastoralist way of living in one of the remotest areas of the world (the Gobi Desert)and the so-called modern Western living. Sadly though, the former appears to be fast disappearing or encroached by the latter - as can be seen in the final scenes of the film when the shepherd family acquire a television and the eldest boy is working on the satellite dish to get proper reception.

The title of this documentary from Mongolia is not a metaphor - there is an actual weeping camel in the movie. Directed by a Mongolian woman and an Italian man who met as students at a German film school and set in the Mongolian steppe, the plot is slight and the directing style is somewhat artless, yet the story is charming and interesting. After a difficult delivery, a mother camel refuses to nurse her young. The camel owners (nomadic Mongolian shepherds, living in a ger in the steppe) send their two children to the city in order to get a violinist to convince the camel, through music, to feed her baby. And the movie allows us to see a particular civilization that is increasingly encroached by the modern world (one of the movie's most poignant scenes had the children demanding their father for a television).

''Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel'' is told to be a ''documentary'', but I don't get exactly what is the purpose of it. It shows the story of a nomadic family and the troubles they have with a camel and her offspring, since the mother refuses to give maternal love to her baby. And that's it. More then one hour only watching camels, the desert, and part of the nomadic family's life. Don't get me wrong, the cinematography is beautiful and I do enjoy watching different movies from the ones from Hollywood, specially when all the people in this movie were real and not actors, but where is the plot of watching this movie? That's what I don't really get.I found interesting, however,the ritual with music they did for the mother camel accept her baby back. I would love to see a research about that, because I've never heard about music healing an animal's trauma.The movie is not bad, only without purpose.