Set amid the vast and stunning expanses of the Gobi Desert, The Story of the Weeping Camel follows the adventures of a family of herders who face a crisis when a mother camel rejects her newborn calf following a particularly difficult delivery. Exploring an exotic and distant culture in which tradition, myth, and family unity (both human and animal) are essential elements of daily life, The Story of the Weeping Camel is directly inspired by the techniques of legendary filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Employing a nonprofessional cast, who actually live the life and events that unfold, the film combines unstaged, unrehearsed sequences with carefully prepared re-creations of authentic experience, combining the very best of fictional and documentary techniques in order to capture for the first time in a dramatic feature this all-but-vanished way of life.