When I was first told that we would be watching “The Story of the Weeping Camel”, I can honestly say that I was not too thrilled. The reason being, the title. I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover; case and point this movie. I can say that at some points throughout the movie, it did become a little boring. Fortunately, the end outweighed those points.
I was really moved by the baby camel. The fact that from day one, his mother refused him, I found myself choking back tears. Repeatedly, the white colt reached out to his mother for milk or just for security. I was really shocked and saddened that the mother’s maternal instinct never kicked in initially.
I think that this case, if realistic, could shed more light on the post-partum depression epidemic. The fact that even animals suffer from possible symptoms of the “baby blues”, is really monumental for possible research. Reason being that a lot of people still are questionable and not sure of the possible side effects or consequences of post-partum depression. In some cases, the “baby blues” have resulted in such cases of mother’s killing their children or harming them. The mother camel clearly rejects her own offspring and there has to be a reason.
On another note, I felt the movie paralleled the mother camel and her child to the mother in the Mongolian family and her children. Often throughout the movie the mother left her daughter, Guntee, with the grandmother. The baby would cry hysterically for only her mother, much like the baby camel. Guntee needed her mother to tend to her needs, feed her, bathe her, and rock her to sleep among things. This parallelism depicted the importance of a mother in her offsprings’ life; they need them to be there for survival. The Mongolian mother assumed the role of mother for the baby camel as well, glorifying the true maternal instinct. She felt compassion for the baby camel and sustained it for the first couple weeks of its life. I found this tribute/depiction to be quite moving and appropriate.
As the movie came to a close and the mother camel was reunited with her offspring, she began to weep. Whether she was weeping as a reflex or for regretting the way that she treated her baby, it really doesn’t matter. Both effects were results of she and her baby coming together. The fact that she could be weeping over rejecting her baby is so emotional. Just the fact that she couldn’t help the way that she was feeling and did love her baby, gives actual mothers hope.
I chuckled when I read your opening. One thing that absolutely intrigued me seeing the movie was the title. To me, “The Weeping Camel” seemed like it must be facinating.
Your parallelism is interesting. I found a similar parallelism in the umbilical cord, the cord that tied the child, the ropes that tied the mother and infant camels, and the strings on the violin in which beautiful musical cords were created.
Sam