The Wheel

In Mongolia, a third of the population lives in poverty. Is that why the suicide rate is so high? Suicide survivors and family members of those who have taken their lives relate their circumstances, far removed from the freedoms of traditional nomadic life. Not all of them wish to be identifiable in the film; suicide is a taboo. In the darkness, a teenager whispers emotionally about her brother’s suicide and a couple who lives off selling scrap metal tells a story of their son’s survival. The stories come from different parts of the country, but everywhere the reasons given for suicide are similar: hopelessness, unemployment, loneliness and harshness of life.