Austin Film Festival: The Cave of the Yellow Dog, Rescue Dawn, and Death of a President

The Austin Film Festival is well into its 13th year. Dedicated to filmmakers of every type, aspiring or established, who use the language of film as the means to tell a story, The Austin Film Festival hosts events celebrating all aspects of filmmaking – the artistic and business sides. The 2006 festival is hosting several premieres and three secret sneak preview screenings.


The Cave of the Yellow Dog was submitted as Mongolia’s contender for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the 2006 Deutscher Filmpreis Award for Best Children’s Picture. The film blends documentary and drama in the examination of the bond between human and dog. Yellow Dog follows the life of a Mongolian nomadic family when the oldest daughter returns home from school for the summer. She may be the oldest child of the family but she can’t be much older than five or six-years-old. While helping with the family chores, she discovers a young dog in a cave and quickly befriends it. However wolves have been attacking the family’s sheep and the young girl’s father is concerned the pup may have been living with the wolves and thus is unsafe for them to keep. She hides the dog from her father until at last the pup warms his heart as well.

It is a beautiful movie, shot in Mongolia. At the heart of the film are the children. They are adorable and add a loving touch to what might have otherwise been a boring story. The spiritual element of reincarnation is woven throughout the film, adding to the bond between the girl and the dog. There were a few moments when the subtitles were difficult to read due to their color but otherwise not a bad word can be said about the film. I definitely recommend anyone with the opportunity to see The Cave of the Yellow Dog not hesitate to do so.

After Yellow Dog I went to the Driscoll Hotel where the festival headquarters is camped out. In the lobby, and at the bar, is also where many of the festivalgoers hang out between screenings to catch up or get out of the surprisingly chilly weather (ok, it is cold for Austin). It is a nice hotel with some excellent – and very pricey – food that also hosts true Texas comfort in the leather couches and Western décor.

Next I was on my way to see Werner Herzog’s newest film, Rescue Dawn. The subject matter is certainly nothing new, nor are the characters as Rescue Dawn is the action drama retelling of Dieter Dengler’s story – the subject of Herzog’s 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Dengler was an American Navy pilot who crash-landed in Laos shortly before outbreak of the Vietnam War. Rescue Dawn is his story of survival after the crash.

It would be impossible for any movie about Vietnam to not be beautiful, just as it would be impossible for any project of Herzog’s to not be beautiful. The story is intense, as any POW’s survival story would be. Christian Bale does an amazing job as Dengler but the most amazing performance is Steve Zahn – who knew what an amazing actor he is? Herzog’s ability to tell a compelling story shines through making Rescue Dawn not just a war movie, but a movie about the strength of the human soul – even under extreme conditions. But as much as I loved the film, it wasn’t the typical Werner Herzog film – it focuses far more on the narrative of Dengler than the atmosphere around him. However, the story is compelling enough to allow audiences to leave behind their expectations and follow Dengler through the Laotian jungle with the hopes of making it to Thailand and thus to freedom. Plus it is nice to see the American hero surviving without slaughtering his enemies around him.

While I didn’t attend the screening, tonight’s special sneak preview was one of the first public screenings of Death of a President. Death of a President is a faux-documentary, taking existing news footage to create the story of what life might be like should President Bush be assassinated. The word on the street is that it is hard to watch and never fulfills its potential of true innovative filmmaking. It focuses more on the direct aftermath than on any changes in the world or American life. It is, essentially, the whodunit story of the murder. I suppose I’ll have to wait until Death of a President is out in theaters, which is later this month.

If you haven’t yet gone to the Austin Film Festival website, you should check it out. You can read filmmakers’ blogs, reviews of the films, and even watch trailers for many of the 135 films included in this year’s festival. You can also check out reviews of Friday and Saturday.