"-What if we put this guy on a horse and make his face be hidden? Like in an abstract way?"
"-Yeah, yeah. I like it, boss!"
The movie "Mongol", written and directed by Sergei Bodrov, premiered worldwide on July 31, 2007. It chronicles the early years of Genghis Khan, who united the nomadic tribes in present day Mongolia with Mongol clan and furthermore conquered half of the world. The movie gained Nika award and was nominated for Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. "-Yeah, yeah. I like it, boss!"
However, the movie stirred a big controversy when Mongols themselves watched it. Although the costumes and the filming landscape were impressive, the plotline involving Genghis Khan, the father of Mongolian nation, being imprisoned in China, and his wife, Oleun, offering herself to a caravaner in order to save his husband, was definitely not what Mongols read from [The oldest surviving Mongolian-language literature, "The Secret History of the Mongols"], which is mostly the only source for biography of Genghis Khan. Therefore, avid moviegoers in Mongolia felt indignant at Bodrov for giving the world audience wrong impression about Genghis Khan, though the movie introduced Genghis Khan to more audiences.
For starters, the movie was favored by the mainstream audience in Mongolia. During the pre-production, Sergei Bodrov visited Mongolia but his screenplay was criticized by historians there, so he filmed mostly in Kazakhstan and China. After the release and Oscar nomination, the media said they regretted the decision, and wished they had agreed to co-operate (although Mongolian artist already had an Oscar nomination with "The Story of the Weeping Camel"). Comparing "Mongol" to Japanese "Blue Wolf", where Mongols fight in a ninja style, the movie had contemporary costumes and props in it. Next to the domestic movie "Chinggis Khaan: No Right to Die", the Mongol’s story was more consistent and was distributed to a broader market. The dialogue was in Mongolian and there were 3 Mongolian actors in the leading role, which makes it intelligible. “Mongol” was advertised on international websites and major media channels and was a celebration for Mongolians.
Despite the celebration, the movie plot line had a downright different from the history. In the official movie website it is written that the movie is "based on leading scholarly account". For it, Bodrov mentioned two sources: 1) Lev Gumilev in an interview with the Russian newspaper "Nedeliya", and 2) a "Chinese source" in an interview in English along with John Man, the author of "Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection". Lev Gumilev is an anthropologist who started a cultural movement called "Neo-Eurasianism", which advocates the Mongol invasion to Kievan Rus'. However, no historians of Mongolia or the mainstream Mongol historians agreed with Lev Gumilev’s statement about Genghis’ imprisonment.8 From the English interview with John Man, there were no source of the "Chinese source", but what was equally interesting was that Sergei Bodrov stated that "Genghis is a very unpopular figure in Russia, one of the most unpopular" and that "we [Russians] still blame the Mongols for all our problems in my country". Many people thinks this is the reason the movie Mongol had different plotlines. Thus, the movie’s historical sources are implausible.
Then again, the Mongol Invasion-apologists can still forgive Sergei Bodrov for the sake of "historical movies". After all, the "Gladiator" character General Maximus did not exist. "300" depicted Persians as mutated monsters and physically challanged belly dancers. Anyone who rationalizes enough would know that the purpose of filmmakers is to artistically express themselves and to make money, instead of making boring researches and filming historical documentary. Surely, the Mongol invasion resulted to several ethnic groups' extinctions, and Genghis Khan is equivalent to Adolf Hitler for some nations. However, the scene with Oleun, the future queen of the Mongol Empire, offering prostitution for a hitchhiking in the movie "Mongol" was considered a definite controversy among noted historians.
Finally, although critical reaction of Mongolia was negative, the mainstream Mongolian audience appreciated the promotion of the country. A commonly held view in Mongolia currently is that because film making is an artistic practice and it does not necessarily have to stick to historical facts, it is trivial to feel indignant at Mr. Bodrov. "Mongol" is the first part of a trilogy. Let's hope that in the next part there will be no hideous creatures or physically challenged belly dancers.
1 Политический журнал Архив № 12 (63) / 04 апреля 2005. In Russian.
