Film on Mongols Dismays Nation
{mosimage}STATE Honored Figure, People’s Artist and film producer G.Jigjidsuren has come down heavily on Sergei Bodrov’s film The Mongol as an unacceptable distortion of Mongolian history and as a brutal assault on Mongolian sensibilities.
STATE Honored Figure, People’s Artist and film producer G.Jigjidsuren has come down heavily on Sergei Bodrov’s film The Mongol as an unacceptable distortion of Mongolian history and as a brutal assault on Mongolian sensibilities. Its technical excellence cannot compensate for its consistent misrepresentation of facts and its possible commercial success does not speak for its artistic merit. The film, shown on TV channels in the country, has caused outrage. Echoing national sentiment, Jigjidsuren has said in an interview with the daily Mongoliin medee that he has information people in several other central Asian countries, earlier under Soviet domination, have “also reacted with aversion” to the film. “The memory of the Great Chinggis Khaan and historical truth both demand respect and honesty which the film made by a Russian does not show in any measure,” he said.
Mongolian historians had asked Sergei Bodrov on a visit to Mongolia to involve local people in the production to ensure accuracy and integrity. He did not agree and as a result no Mongolian worked for the film in any capacity. They would have been paid handsomely but, as Jigjidsuren noted with approval, “for Mongolians more important was national loyalty”.
“I cannot deny that we are at the moment unable to do anything likely to match the film’s cinematography, music, sound effects, editing and all those technical aspects of film making. We do not have the expertise and the equipment. But these technical qualities should not make anybody overlook the basic mistake, taking liberties with historical truth.”
When the film is released worldwide, people there would get a very mistaken idea about Mongolia eight centuries ago. Jigjidsuren said Chinggis Khaan is “the national pride of Mongolians”, much as Peter the Great is for Russians. He recalled that in the 1970s, an American proposal to make a film about Peter was turned down by Russians because they found the screenplay showed the Czar as a drunkard and a debauch. “Despite the general technical brilliance, I found many things wrong with the film. I was not impressed with much of the acting abilities, and some roles were played without any spirit, with the actors unable to enter into the mind of the character.” he said.
He wondered why nobody had bothered to study Mongolian tradition and practices with some care, for the sake of authenticity. “At least they wouldn’t have done the riding parts so wrong. This was an elementary mistake.”
N.Nagaanbuu, researcher and writer, also found little “historically true” in the film which has “sullied the reputation of Mongolians as a proud people”.
“I see Chinggis Khaan as one of the world’s geniuses. Why else does he attract people’s interest centuries after he died? Unfortunately the film has been made only for money. It is neither true history nor real art,” said Nagaanbuu.
“I was pained to see that the general approach of the film was to present Chinggis Khaan as something like a wild animal. Wolves are often shown to be very near him, he kills Begter for a piece of meat, he makes an amulet with a bird bone, and venerates the skull of an animal.”
Nagaanbuu found it strange that Chinggis, Borte and Zuchi talk to one another in Chinese in the film. “Was there any political motive behind showing Mongolia as part of China and Chinggis as part Chinese, part Kazakh?”
Written by B.Bulgamaa
The UB Post
