Egle Vertelyte: UB Lama

In this sympathetic documentary, that can be watched by kids as well, Galaa, who is a twelve years old boy from Mongolia, is attracted to hip hop music, is not really fond of going to school, makes problems for his mother, sometimes small sometimes bigger. His father is dead, he tells about the dramatic circumstances, and the mother thinks he should go to a lama school: When you become a lama the grief and pain of poverty will disappear.

The film crew follows Galaa and his family closely, has caught many fine situations and moments, inluding those where the kid’s world is falling apart because the lama school can not accept his admission to the school before the next year. At that point Galaa has peeped into the class room where boys of same age as him are having the experience, and the fun, that he really had hoped for.

A fine non-exotic and fresh insight to the life of a poor family in a culture that we know so little about. That also makes you think how seldom it is to find good documentaries that will work for children as well as for grown-ups.

Lithuania, 2011, 51 mins., Prod.: Studio Nominum, Editor: Francesca Scalisi

http://www.scanorama.lt/en/ub-lama

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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