"Cave of the Yellow Dog" is a charming and humanistic film about a little girl who becomes attached to a dog. The girl belongs to a wandering family and the film laments the passing of the nomadic lifestyle, which is threatened by urbanization.

The film opens on December 8 at Chicago’s Music Box Theater. It plays like an interesting cross between "Things Fall Apart" and "Lassie."

Directed by Byambasuren Davaa, who also made the critically acclaimed "The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003)," both films are naturalistic, and they achieve maximum results from minimal budgets.

The film stars the photogenic and somewhat boyish Nansal Batchuluun as a young girl named Nansal, who aimlessly wanders the countryside with her nomadic family. They have few social contacts and the girl seems to have no friends outside her family. She runs into a semi-wild dog living in a cave and she immediately bonds with it. She names the dog "Zochor," which means spot in Mongolian, and the two become best friends.

Her father strongly disapproves of the relationship because he is afraid the dog will attract wolves that may decimate his herd of sheep.

The mother allows the girl to keep the dog, and they try to keep it a secret from the father. But the family is set to move again, so the father is bound to find out eventually.

In one of the key scenes, an elder woman tells Nansal a folk tale about a yellow dog in a cave, which hints the movie is really about reincarnation.

Eventually the dog protects one of the family members when he gets into trouble, and the film has a few too many false endings.

"Cave of the Yellow Dog" is no masterpiece, but it has many moments of pure visual beauty. The film is filled with gorgeous long takes of nature scenes, and it takes its time to tell its simple but heart-warming story. It's a refreshing change from typical, fast paced Hollywood films.