Gold Rush Redux

A Brief Commentary / Review of this month’s film selection, “Veins of the World”
by John Bennison, Mountain Shadow Director

At this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival in October, a wonderfully-inspiring true-life documentary, “Máxima,” depicted the story of Máxima Acuño, an indigenous farmer living an harmonious life with her natural surroundings in the Peruvian Andes. Encroaching on her ancient way of life is the Yanacocha gold strip-mining operation, owned by the American Newmont Mining Corporation and co-funded by the World Bank. The documentary chronicles the efforts of the gigantic corporation to expand their operations by confiscating Maxima’s land, and the power of one woman’s resistance to create an environmental social movement.

Curiously, the same festival presented a second film this year with a similar theme. On the other side of the world, a narrative drama tells a similar David-and-Goliath tale in Byambasuren Davaa’s feature film, “Veins of the World,” based on her screenplay depicting the same struggle as Máxima, but in her own native Mongolia.

Eleven-year-old Amra dutifully helps his parents take care of their land, sheep, and goats on the vast landscape of the Mongolian steppe; while also attending class in a rustic schoolhouse. At first, one cannot tell if this might be present-day Mongolia, or a tale from an ancient past. That is, until Amra and his classmate’s chatter turn to talk of the latest YouTube videos, and his father roars up the dusty road to the schoolyard in a convertible that’s been spliced together from salvaged car parts. Old world customs and traditions will, once again, collide head-on with the encroachment of modern-day institutions, power-structures, and life values.

As such, Amra’s modernized boyhood ambitions extend far beyond another unremarkable generation of sheep herders. He dreams of one day auditioning to be a featured contestant for the adapted hit-TV show, Mongolia’s Got Talent, singing the folk hymn handed down to him from prior generations.

As the gold mining company begins threatening the community’s traditional way of life, Amra’s father organizes an opposition group within their close-knit clan. Meanwhile, in an early scene, Amra and his father, Erdene, are in the fields. His father asks Amra what he will sing if he gets to the contest. “Golden Veins,” he replies, then adds, “But the words are a bit too childish for me.” Alarmed, his father asks what he means, and Amra explains the ancient tune is akin to a fairy tale. Like the Mountain Spirt, the boy says, it doesn’t really exist.

Alarmed, his father adamantly disagrees. “Of course, it does,” he says, “if you believe in him with all your heart, he’ll give you all kinds of powers.” Then, in the middle of an expansive field with nothing but bleating sheep around them to hear, Amra is told to stand up and imagine a thousand listeners as he closes his eyes and sings:

“Once upon a time, Before greed prevailed
In the beginning of time, Our planet was woven of gold
That is why we call it ‘Golden Earth’,
To remind the world let’s sing this hymn.”

For only a short while longer, the father will be able to lead a band of local villagers’ fierce opposition to the gold-mining company’s avarice, blasphemous, scouring excavation of the surrounding mountain and its mythic spirit. Young Amra will then have to venture out in his own way to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Certainly, “Veins of the World” is formulaic; a common tale, told and re-told in many different times and places; like the real Peruvian farmer-turned-activist, Máxima Acuño. It’s a family film; suitable for an extended family of which you and I are members. The fictional boyhood character from Mongolia will stand onstage before a microphone, close his eyes, clear his throat and sing to this global village we all inhabit an oft-repeated message that’s as real and compelling as one might imagine.

“When the last golden vein is exposed
The demons awaken
Life will be extinguished forever
And the earth falls into dust.
That is why we call it “Golden Earth”
To remind the world let’s sing this hymn
Gold is unattainable happiness
Gold is endless suffering
This truth is told over generations.
From grandparents, to parents, to us
That is why we call it ‘Golden Earth’
Let’s sing this hymn for every living thing.”