I was expecting a sentimental man dog road movie and thank goodness it was so much more than that.

The Gobi desert landscape is barren and lunar. A small bus overturns when a huge pack of wild dogs flows over and across the hills, complicating the journey of one of the passengers, Lang (Eddie Peng). He is returning home after a spell in prison for manslaughter and some people, like his neighbour Mr Camel and employer Mr Yao (filmmaker Zhangke Jia), welcome him but others can’t forgive him. His nemesis is Mr. Hu, snake farmer and uncle of the person he killed.

Around Lang and his silent and solitary existence is the town of Chixia. It is forlorn with building after building scheduled for demolition. It is 2008 on the cusp of the Beijing Olympics and the old must make way for new prosperity.  This includes clearing the town of the many stray dogs, the remnant of a bigger population who abandoned them when they left.

Although this feels like a Western – loner coming to town to make good – it is the decay and the gradual reestablishment of wild animals that seems to be the underlying theme. Yes, there is a narrative of Lang trying to capture the titular rabid black dog but this seems part of that larger whole of humans’ failed attempt to control and subdue that which is wild.

I found myself becoming absorbed by the urban and rural landscape – the dilapidated zoo, the black hills, the sandstorms and light. That first scene of the dogs flowing over the landscape has a strong impact. Emotion is there and director Hu Guan allows us time to feel for Lang, for the dog, Lang’s father, Mr Camel, even Mr. Hu.  There aren’t really any women – maybe it’s only the men who stay when it’s clear to everyone else it’s time to go.

I appreciated the lack of sentimentality, well at least until the last scene and then I felt I could forgive that for the sake of Lang and the black dog.