The Wrestler's Second: The Story of Mongolia's Struggle with Yadargaa (2008)

In the early 1990s, the fall of the Soviet Union left Mongolia's economy in shambles and its people searching for a way to adjust to capitalism. Mongolian doctors and traditional healers found that the prevalence of a disorder known as "yadargaa" was increasing throughout the country. Word of this disorder made its way to a team of medical anthropologists, who traveled to Mongolia to study the people affected by this illness. "The Wrestler's Second" follows Tsodol, a famous Mongolian Wrestling Coach (or Wrestler's Second), as he travels from the former Soviet controlled Mongolian capital back to the traditional nomadic life of Gobi Desert. There he searches for a cure to his "Yadargaa" and a sense of balance in a modern Mongolia. The piece was produced as an educational component in conjunction with academic research and publications on the mysterious disorder known to Mongolians as "Yadargaa". "The Wrestler's Second: The Story of Mongolia's Struggle with Yadargaa".