Through the vast Gobi Desert, trucks loaded with coal travel one after another. At the wheel of one of them sits Maikhuu, a mother of three. The film follows her life on the road over six years, travelling between the coal mines of the Mongolian Gobi Desert and the Chinese border. The endless line of trucks shows how Mongolia’s nomads, who once moved with their cattle in search of grassland, are now becoming a new kind of nomad, following capital and resources instead. Navigating through the desolate desert landscape, the difficult life on the road, and the inner world of a mother living far from her children, the film plainly captures how mining development is changing both nature and people’s lives. Against the overwhelming landscape, the image of a woman at the wheel, passing through a great transformation of the times, stays with you long after the films ends. Mongolian director Khoroldorj Choijoovanchig, whose narrative feature Yellow Colt was invited to BIFF in 2013, returns with his first feature-length documentary.
A Mongolian film director and producer who founded the production company ICity Films in 2004. After participating in Berlinale Talents and the Asian Film Academy, he made his feature debut with Yellow Colt (2013), which was invited to numerous international film festivals, including the Busan International Film Festival. He later completed an MFA in Cinematography at EICAR in Paris, and his short film Lady of the Gobi (2022) won the Grierson Award for Best Short Documentary. Colors of White Rock is his second feature documentary.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
