State of Dogs (Mongolian: Нохойн орон, alternately Nokhoin Oron) is a Mongolian movie that was released in 1998, directed and written by Peter Brosens and Dorjkhandyn Turmunkh. The film was shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival,[1] the 1998 Toronto Film Festival[1], the 1999 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival,[2] and won the the Grand Prix at the 1998 Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland.[1]
        Set in Mongolia's capital city, Ulan Bator, the film combines documentary elements with fictional elements[3] in the fragmented, impressionistic and dreamlike story of Baasar, a dog who dies early in the movie — shot by a hunter employed by the city to reduce it's dog population, which has more than one dog for each four humans in its population of 800,000.[4]
        According to Mongolian legend, a dog (who is prepared) may be reincarnated in its next life as a human, after roaming free for as long as he wants.[5] Baasar roams the memory of his life, uninterested in advancing to a human life.[2]
        The film includes brief interludes with a solar eclipse, a segment in which a young man recites poems directly to the camera, and a depiction of modern Mongolian life with undercurrents of mysticism and myth.[4]
        Garth Stein, American author and film producer, was inspired by State of Dogs, to write his best selling novel The Art of Racing in the Rain.[6]