Agaar

A Mongolian herdsman’s son longs to return to the wind and grasslands of his native region, following a few successful years as an entertainer on a cruise ship. Like his parents and ancestors before him, he wants to roam the plains with livestock, but he also wants to connect that life with the outside world online—through livestreams from the back of a sheep or TikTok videos of meat roasting over a wood fire as the sun sets. Talented and ambitious, Agaar can already picture the thousands of likes, but success remains elusive, whatever he undertakes or sacrifices along the way—like trading in his BMW for expensive cattle.

For years now, Agaar and his family have allowed themselves to be followed online, and the camera seems to have become another member of the household. For viewers, that sense of involvement becomes deeply personal, drawing them naturally into this way of life at the intersection of tradition and progress. But even in this enterprising herdsman’s home, the scope of the dream is ultimately determined by hard-nosed commercial realities, crippling loans, cattle diseases, and social pressures. Despite all this, the mother’s faith in her son, the wife’s faith in her husband, and the little sister’s faith in her big brother remain unshaken.