France’s Urban Sales has released the first trailer for Zoljargal Purevdash’s debut feature If Only I Could Hibernate, which premieres in Un Certain Regard on May 21 as the first Mongolian film ever in the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection.

Produced by Urban Factory Production and Purevdash’s Amygdala Films, the film is set in the heavily polluted yurt district of Mongolia’s capital Ulaanbaatar, where a teenaged boy struggles to escape his poor background by winning a science competition to earn a scholarship.

When his illiterate mother finds a job in the countryside, she leaves him and his younger siblings to fend for themselves.

Purevdash produced the film with Urban Factory’s Frederic Corvez and Maeva Savinien, with Mongolia’s Batkhishig Sed-Ayushjav as co-producer. She met Corvez at Talents Tokyo at the Tokyo Filmex International Film Festival in 2017 and then developed the film through a series of international labs and co-production markets, including Torino Film Lab, Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors and Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum.

The cast of mostly non-professional actors including Battsooj Uurtsaikh, Nominjiguur Tsend and Tuguldur Batsaikhan are expected to attend Cannes for the film’s red-carpet screening in Un Certain Regard on Sunday.

Purevdash says she made the film to provide hope and inspiration for the young people of Mongolia: “This is a bitter story to tell, but through the story of this teenager’s struggle for survival, I wanted to suggest the solution of an equal chance to get a good education for every kid.”