Last night GiantRobot held a special screening of Sergei Bodrov's Mongol at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles! Tadanobu Asano stars as Temudjin, the inevitable Kahn of all of the Mongols. I thought it was very interesting for production companies in Germany, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia to all come together for this production. The film was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Languange film as a submission from Kazakhstan.

The film begins with a young Temudjin and follows his earl years and a semihistorical, near accurate portrayal of ancient Mongolia. This film is definitely epic with battle scenes worth of 300 and Gladiator. Loads of blood and barbaric sword slashin' depicts the first disorder and separation of tribes during those early times. It was survival of the fittest of sorts. But with beautiful cinematic scenes of large open mountain ranges, plains, and deserts, it was easy to find a contrast between a land of plunder and deception in a setting so breathtaking.

With the help and unconditional love of his wife Borte (whose role is completely vital, cause she's got strong legs), Temudjin is able to continue on amidst slavery, humiliation and devastating family hardships. It was interesting to see a visualization of all the things I learned about in my history class on that region. It was a great cultural window and the young actors are so great! Look out for Picture House's Mongol in theatres tomorrow June 6th in New York and Los Angeles.

Full Trailer in HD


When will I get to choose my bride?

Labels: Film