Close to Eden

Close to Eden (1991) is a drama by Nikita Mikhalkov — a French-Soviet co-production you can watch online on iFILM. Shot on the sweeping grasslands of Inner Mongolia, the film follows Gombo, a herdsman with a young wife and three children, whose plans for a fourth run headlong into China's population control laws.

To keep things legal, Gombo has to make the long trip to town. Along the way he pulls a stranded Russian truck driver out of a lake, and the stranger ends up staying on the farm for a spell. Two men from entirely different worlds, sharing meals and makeshift conversation without a common language — that is the heart of the film.

Mikhalkov keeps the tone unhurried and warm, watching the old nomadic life and the modern world trade quiet glances: a television set arrives in the yurt, Coca-Cola cans turn up in the steppe. Close to Eden won the Golden Lion at the 1991 Venice Film Festival and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Stream Close to Eden online on iFILM.