The Mongol
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Mongol |
| Original title | Монгол |
| Country of production |
Russia , Mongolia , Kazakhstan , Germany |
| original language |
Mongolian , Chinese |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sergei Bodrov |
| script |
Arif Aliyev , Sergei Bodrov |
| production |
Sergei Seljanow , Sergei Bodrov, Anton Melnik |
| music |
Tuomas Kantelinen , Altan Urag |
| camera |
Sergei Trofimow , Rogier Stoffers |
| cut |
Zach Staenberg , Valdís Óskarsdóttir |
| occupation | |
| |
Der Mongole ( Russian : Монгол) is a Russian-Mongolian film by director Sergei Bodrow from 2007. It was shown in German cinemas on August 7, 2008. The film was shot with up to 1,000 extras on original locations in Mongolia and Kazakhstan .
action
The film tells of Temudgin's childhood (originally Temüüdschin; tatar .: "the blacksmith", incorrectly translated as "the iron one", in English transcription Temüjin) and his rise to Genghis Khan .
In the summer of 1172 the nine-year-old Temudgin is on the way to the Merkites with his father Yesügai . Yesügai is the leader of a Mongolian clan. Yesügai wants to find a bride for Temudgin among the Merkites and in this way reconcile the warring tribes. Yesügai himself established the enmity of the tribes when he stole the bride of the leader of the Merkites. On the way to the Merkites, Yesügai stops at a friendly tribe. There Temudgin meets ten-year-old Börte , who aggressively offers herself as a suitable bride. After some hesitation, Yesügai finally allows his son to choose Börtes as his future bride. The wedding should take place in five years.
On the way back to his tribe, his father is poisoned because he trusts the customs of the Mongols; no blood is shed at a rest area. The young warrior Targutai seizes the opportunity and declares himself the new ruler. He lets Temudgin live, but with the promise to kill Temudgin next winter as soon as he gets bigger. Nevertheless, Targutai has it properly supplied with water and food so that it can finally grow. In an unobserved moment, Temudgin manages to escape. This time he manages to make his way to the holy mountain , even though he is tied with a wooden collar . There he asks Tengri for help, as his father once told him. St. Tengri appears to him in the form of a wolf, who examines him and weighs his humility. In the next scene Temudgin kneels next to his loosened bonds. At some point, after breaking into the ice of a frozen lake, he remains exhausted in the snow. There the young Jamukha Gurkhan finds him and saves him from freezing to death. Temudgin and Jamukha become blood brothers and Temudgin spends some time with Jamukha's clan. After a while, Targutai appears with some warriors. He recognizes Temudgin and takes him prisoner. Temudgin now has to do slave labor.
After many years the now grown-up Temudgin appears in the camp of Börtes clan and finally wants to fetch his promised bride. Despite the clan leader's concerns that much more than the agreed five years have passed, Börte, who had been waiting for years, immediately agreed to the wedding. Temudgin and Börte travel to Temudgin's family's camp where the wedding ceremony is being performed. After a short period of happiness, the Merkites appear and attack the two of them, Temudgin escaping on horseback with an arrow in his back because his bride sacrifices herself to the enemy as a substitute for him. At the same time, it is accepted as revenge for the fact that Temudgin's father stole the Merkite leader's bride many years ago. Temudgin turns to his blood brother Jamukha and asks him for help in freeing Börtes. Jamukha agrees, although it is against the tradition to go to war over a woman. However, the exemption is not due to take place until next year, as Jamukha believes it is more suitable for such an undertaking.
Börtes was finally liberated. She is pregnant. Temudgin recognizes the unborn child as his own, although it is clear to all that after the long wait for the attack this cannot be his child. Temudgin proves to be very generous in dividing up the booty. He only demands 1/10 of the prey for himself. The remainder should be divided equally between himself and the families of the fallen warriors. The secret departure of Temudgin and his people the next morning creates tension between Jamukha and Temudgin, especially since two of Jamukha's best people have joined Temudgin. A confrontation is peaceful, however, since every Mongol has the right to choose his own Khan. Jamukha's biological brother is very dissatisfied with the situation and therefore decides to steal Temudgin's horses. While trying to escape Temudgin's warriors, he is killed by an arrow in the back. Temudgin breaks with the Mongolian tradition of sending the murderer's head to Jamukha as reparation for not knowing who they had killed; after all, it was just a horse thief. This leads to enmity between the two.
Targutai finally succeeds in persuading Jamukha to fight Temudgin openly. Together they pursue Temudgin's people. When Temudgin is finally overtaken, he breaks Mongolian customs again. He does not leave the families behind to save his warriors, but enables the families to escape by setting himself up with his warriors to fight the outnumbered troops of Targutai and Jamukha. After bitter resistance, Temudgin is eventually overwhelmed and captured. Jamukha demands that he ask for mercy. Since Temudgin is unwilling to do so and refuses his blood brother's plea to beg him for his life, Jamukha sells him into slavery.
Temudgin ends up in a cell in a distant realm because the governor, his buyer, was prophesied by a Buddhist monk that this man would one day destroy his realm with the Mongol hordes. There he asks from his cage the old Buddhist monk, who long afterwards begging for mercy, to travel to Mongolia and bring his lucky bone to his people as a sign of life. The old monk undertakes the journey through the Central Asian steppes and deserts, but dies of exhaustion shortly before reaching his destination. Börte finds him there. She finds the talisman on the dead man and decides to free Temudgin. She joins a caravan and finally manages to free Temudgin as well. Temudgin and Börte travel back to Mongolia. Börte mentions that Temudgin doesn't really know the Mongols at all. These are just lawless robbers and murderers who also kill women and children. Temudgin then decides to travel to the holy mountain again. There Tengri appears again in the form of the wolf. Thereby he learns the basic laws for the future of the Mongols and he decides to unite the tribes with these rules.
The armies of Temudgin and Jamukha face each other. These are the last armies that remained from the Mongol Wars of Unification. Before that, Temudgin asks the holy Tengri for help in the fight against the outnumbered forces of Jamukha. Indeed, a thunderstorm approaches during the fight. The Mongols are afraid of the thunderstorm and hide under their shields. Not Temudgin, however. He rides unimpressed across the battlefield. His warriors, who see him, rise again to fight. The frightened Jamukha troops are beaten. After the fight, Targutai, who fought alongside Jamukha, is slain by his own troops and is presented to Temudgin. Temudgin, for his part, has the murderers slain for betraying their Khan. Jamukha is caught alive. Temudgin asks Jamukha what, as Khan, he would do with him in his place. He laughs and says: “I would let myself be killed. I would always be a stone in your boot ”. But he wants to know why Temudgin wasn't afraid of the thunderstorm. After all, a thunderstorm is a sign that the Mongol god is angry. Temudgin replies that he never had the opportunity to hide from the thunderstorm in his life. At some point he stopped being afraid.
Finally Temudgin releases Jamukha into freedom with a horse, which amazes him with the words "how can you let your enemy go". Temudgin whispers after him: "I will set my brother free". He is now the Khan of all Mongols, the Genghis Khan .
In the end credits it is reported that, as prophesied by the monk, he razed the kingdom of Tangut, where he was kept in a cage for many years out of fear; but he left the Buddhist monastery spared.
Reviews
Ulrike Schröder wrote in TV Digital on July 25, 2008 (issue 16) that the film is a gripping mix of facts and legends and shows the notorious warlord as a charismatic visionary and clever strategist without glorifying him. If the end seems too abrupt to you, you have to be patient, because a trilogy is planned and a sequel will follow. The remaining parts had been discarded by Bodrov after problems while working on the first film before he combined the two scripts into one called The Great Kahn . The publication of the project was originally planned for 2010. However, it was postponed several times and the work was discontinued in November 2010 with no prospect of resumption.
Awards
The Mongol was nominated for the 2008 Oscar abroad . In the same year the film received a nomination for the European Film Award 2008 in the categories Best Cinematography and for the European Audience Award .
Web links
- The Mongol in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Mongol at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
supporting documents
- ↑ Director Sergei Bodrow: The Mongol . In: Director Sergei Bodrow (ed.): The Mongol . Russia, Kazakhstan 2007 (taken from the explanations of the film).
- ↑ imdb.com: Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (2007) - Trivia , accessed January 7, 2012