Gombo, a Mongolian shepherd, lives in a yurt in Inner Mongolia with his wife, three children, and mother. They are portrayed as unsophisticated and traditional people. Gombo desires sexual intercourse with his wife, which puts his wife at unease due to Chinese law as it is likely to result in a fourth child. Shortly after, Sergei, an intoxicated, buffoonish Russian truck driver, has stranded himself by driving his truck into a river, and is picked up by Gombo, taken to his family's yurt, to join him in dinner. Gombo's family are particularly taken with Sergei's back tattoos, later revealed to be music notation for the popular waltz "On the Hills of Manchuria." Gombo and Sergei become mutually dependent despite their language and cultural differences. Gombo and Sergei go into the nearest city together, where Gombo is supposed to buy condoms; buying a television set and other goods, but not contraceptives. Sergei, a former army bandsman, becomes drunk and sings "On the Hills of Manchuria" in a nightclub, with the band playing from tattoos on his back. He is arrested and bailed out of jail by Gombo's uncle who lives in the city. Gombo returns home, and along the way stops to eat. He has a strange dream featuring his drunk, horseback-riding relative as Genghis Khan and his wife as the Khan's wife. In the dream both he and Sergei are captured and killed, while the TV set is destroyed. Gombo awakes from his dream and arrives home with the TV. He and his family switch between watching a broadcast of the President of the USA and a badly sung variety show. Gombo's wife, although saddened when learning that he bought no condoms, leaves the yurt, inviting him to follow her with a gesture. Gombo follows her out onto the prairie, sticking an urga into the ground in a traditional signal that a couple is being intimate. A voiceover from Gombo's fourth son, who was conceived at this time, concludes the film, and a chimney belching smoke now stands where Gombo placed his urga.
Cast
Badema as Pagma, Gombo's wife / Genghis Khan's wife
The film is credited with sparking Czech writer Petra Hůlová's initial interest in Mongolia, leading to study, then an exchange year in Ulan Bator, and then to her first novel, Paměť mojí babičce, in English translation published as All This Belongs to Me. In the first section of Michelangelo Antonioni's film Beyond the Clouds, the two protagonists reunite at a screening of Close to Eden.
