An exiled painter returns to Mongolia to create his final mural, confronting memory, loss, and the city that forgot him.

Bayaraa, a weather-worn muralist who once tasted glory in Europe, returns to Mongolia with only a box of paints, a rooftop tent, and his loyal stray dog. Each day he descends the wall of an abandoned factory, covering its crumbling concrete with sweeping murals of mythic Mongolian landscapes. Watching him is a sardonic balloon, at once conscience, companion, and a stroke of fable. When officials announce the factory will soon be demolished, Bayaraa becomes determined to leave behind his masterpiece. Yet the deeper battle lies within: the long-buried wound of the wife and daughter he abandoned for art.

Returning to PÖFF after last year’s Grand Prix win with “Silent City Driver”, director Sengedorj Janchivdorj crafts a visually arresting meditation on memory, impermanence, and reconciliation, with an unhurried rhythm and painterly eye for composition. Anchored by a quietly powerful central performance, “The Muralist” captures both the grit of a city in transition and the resilience of imagination, confirming Sengedorj as one of Mongolia’s most distinctive cinematic voices. A hymn to art’s stubborn survival, the film asks what we choose to preserve when everything else is built on borrowed time.

Massimo Iannetti