When I think Mongolia, I think Genghis Khan, barbeque, shepherds and yurts.
A movie set amid vast barren expanses and snowy mountain crevasses has the potential to be as desolate as the scenery. But this exciting coming-of-age story is one of the best I have seen in a long time. You will see eagles, horses, Buddhist monks, majestic scenery, con men, circus acts, great chases and yes, the inside of a few yurts.
The movie focuses on 12 year-old Bazarbai, the second son of an eagle hunter whose older brother has been chosen to go to the city to seek his fortune. Bazarbai, being the only remaining son, will have to succeed his father at home, in boring nomadic Mongolia, with no electricity, plumbing, or magazines, not too many friends his age or even the chance to go to school. I’d be restless and angry too!
When his father takes him to an eagle competition, which he promises to be exciting (lots of Mongolians and even Russians there) Bazarbai sees his chance to escape and join his brother in the city. His plan goes sour the first chilly night alone, but his wise father decides to let him go, especially as friends remind him “he was young and stubborn at that age and often left for three months at a time.”
What at first appears to be an impossible journey to the city is helped by the Mongolian survival kit. Let me tell you, pet eagles are damn cool. Almost as cool as those orange pterodactyls from Avatar. You can’t ride them, but once you capture one, it is yours (for 10 years), it will follow your will, and even possess mind-reading capabilities. The other cool toy you get in nomadic Mongolia is a horse (which kids can ride one-handed and even bend down to scoop up a stray sheep without slowing down or getting off. Also, riding with the reins in one arm and a pet eagle on the other is pretty intimidating.) And of course, there is the badass fur hat. The only problem with the hat is it makes a nomad (or a “stinky nomad” as the mean city kids say) stick out like a sore thumb. Dead giveaway.
Young Bazarbai survives the wilderness, (Mongolians have a great strength for walking long distances) cold, wolves, con men, and hunger on his quest to find his brother, and sure learns something about the world and himself in between.
Even though it takes place in a remote, faraway country, this movie tugs at your heartstrings while exploring simple human truths. In the end, you will connect with the fact that we all do have to escape our upbringings and see what’s out there, even if we eventually return home to our yurts.
