Not the best movie I've ever seen but this one is very good. It's supposedly the "untold story of Genghis Khan" (implying his military history) but I think it actually ends up being more of a love story between Khan and his wife, Borte.
The movie is gorgeous. It showcases the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan, the movie does the whole Lord of the Rings sweeping shots of the landscape but for less time and to greater effect. The actors and costuming is beautiful as well.
The acting seemed well-done to me. Being in a foreign language and about a foreign culture, it's sometimes hard to tell but I believed what they were saying/I was reading.
The basic storyline is that Temudjin is off to choose his wife, at age nine, from a distant tribe from which his father stole his mother (she was already betrothed at least, if not married). To make amends, Temudjin has to chose his wife from that tribe. The child, however, is entranced by a girl of ten who belongs to another tribe . . . everything falls into motion from there. I can't tell too much because it would give away specific plot points that are important as well as the motion of the plot. The movie did a fantastic job of showing how one thing leads to another. His whole life is laid out in morally complicated and ambiguous causes and effects. My favorite moment comes toward the end of the movie: Borte's response (and then, even better, Khan's response to her)to Khan's saying to his son, about the importance of choosing a good wife, "Didn't I choose your mother well?" A very sweet moment that I think wraps up the movie in a wonderful way.
I don't know enough about Khan to know if much of this is accurate in terms of history but it made a compelling film. It is a tad slow in moments and it runs just over 2 hours but I think it was well worth it.
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