BBC News video, Dec. 23. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16315799, Tashenov, Chingiz. You might notice how it's got a dedication at the end. It ended up taking about 22 days. Aisholpan Nurgaiv is a 13-year-old girl living with her nomadic family in Mongolia's Altai mountains, a harsh, unforgiving place of isolation and physical duress. I was blessed by such elders as Tleubek Esimbek, Aben Toktasynov, Seitzhan Kodekov. The shot had been taken by Israeli photographer Asher Svidensky, and Bell immediately made contact. Ancient Origins 2013 - 2023Disclaimer- Terms of Publication - Privacy Policy & Cookies - Advertising Policy -Submissions - We Give Back - Contact us. Choijiljav, Batzaya. ", Aisholpan hunting for foxes in the Altai mountains.Credit:Sony Pictures Entertainment. (Photo 2010 Mongolia, courtesy of Bek, backtobektravel.com), In 2010, at age 5, Aisulu began helping her father Ardak train an eagle. It was called one of the most significant finds Shambhala, which is a Sanskrit word meaning place of peace or place of silence, is a mythical paradise spoken of in ancient texts, including the Kalachakra Tantra and the ancient scriptures of the Zhang Zhung culture which predated Tibetan Buddhism in western Tibet. Thank you Liz, thank you Otto Bell, thank you Agalai and Aisholpan! Aisholpan (left) at school, in The Eagle Huntress. He is a two-time champion in the annual Golden Eagle festival; his father was a champion, too. Aisholpan, National Geographic 2014, and Otto Bell's The Eagle Huntress Sundance poster 2016. Anyone strong enough to carry an eagle can begin apprenticeship with one's own eagle. Aisholpan is a 13-year-old Kazakh girl in western Mongolia who learns the ancient art of eagle hunting from her father Nurgaiv. Will Dunn in the New Statesman is also bothered by the film's "re-enactment and editorialising", though he notes that without the imposed girl-power narrative it's "a film about the fox-hunting techniques of Mongolian Kazakhs, a subject that is not exactly a banker at the box office". Her father, like his father before him, hunts with a majestic golden eagle, and Aisholpan dreams of carrying on the family tradition . My cameraman, Simon, is a bit of an inventor as well. A scene from "The Eagle Huntress.". After the competition, she takes the final step toward becoming an eagle hunter by traveling with her father to the mountains in the winter to hunt foxes, braving snowy conditions and extreme cold. NFS You started to learn what to predict. 2014. What is the origin of the legend of the Christed Son who was born of a virgin on December 25th? 2016 Directed by Otto Bell Synopsis Witness one girl's dream take flight Follow Aisholpan, a 13-year-old girl, as she trains to become the first female in twelve generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter, and rise to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been typically been handed down from father to son for centuries. Idaho House Where 4 College Students Were Stabbed To Death Will Be Destroyed. Trained golden eagles have served Kazakh hunters of Mongolia for a millennium, and eagle hunting is a skill traditionally passed down from father to son. Ulgii Festival photographs, Sept. 21. http://www.scip.be/index.php?Page=PhotosMongolia&Lang=EN&ID=2941, Kysar, Kathryn. The film features a 13-year-old girl tackling the powerful and violent act of hunting game deep in the mountainous Kazhak wildernessa tradition which has not been taken on by any other female in its 12-generation history. But Aisholpan is a rarity, and an especially telegenic one at that. Move heaven and earth. There's a certain pride in their identity and this ancient tradition, so they quite liked exhibiting it. "Visiting Makpal Abdrazakova," Nov. 26-27. She is the daughter of Shohan, a prominent eagle hunter in Mongolia. As Greek mythology goes, the universe was once a big soup of nothingness. Aisulu, at age 5, teaching a young eagle to balance while perched on a horse. It was 22 days of trial and error, in sub-zero temperatures that caused the filmmakers' hands to stick to their equipment. ", Additional reporting by Grace Brown in Ulan Bator, and Mike Wendling in London. I've never seen anything like this. Bell: Oh, it was the biggest whim of my life. In one of the film's most thrilling sequences, we see Aishol-pan and her father tracking an eagle to its nest, high up a rocky cliff. [15][16] After historical evidence and facts were published about nomadic steppe women participating in training eagles to hunt from antiquity to the present day,[17] the filmmakers corrected early reports placed in media outlets that Aisholpan was "the only" woman in the world hunting with an eagle. She belongs to a family of nomads who spend their summers in a ger in the Altai Mountains and their winters in a house in town. Director: Otto Bell. Alfred Beagle was the son of Jarvis, the former butler to the Wayne family in Gotham City . Returns home to carry on the family legacy Central Asia the men in her left hand and forearm is 2016. If you've never seen Eaglecam, you're in for a treat.That and much more is on display in the documentary "The Eagle Huntress," opening in L.A. on Wednesday.Shot in the r "Makpal, First Woman Eagle Hunter in Modern Kazkahstan." No girl or woman, though, has ever been permitted to spread her wings in this way, so when Aisholpan says it's what she wants to do, it ruffles a few feathers, though her father and mother support her wholeheartedly. Kazakh families are deeply committed to preserving their ancient legacy. Aisholpan Nurgaiv, the rosy-cheeked 13-year-old heroine, is trained by her father to hunt on horseback with a golden eagle - traditionally a male pursuit - and shocks everyone by winning the prestigious eagle-hunters' competition held annually in the town of Ulgii, in north-western Mongolia. I also printed out [protagonist] Aisholpans photographs and physically posted them to the Warrior Poets' office. Having guests has a true intrinsic importance to their lives. "It looks like 30 people shot it, but in reality it was only three of us.". Take your career and your day rate to the next level. And a 13-year-old girl, whose father and grandfather are eagle hunters, decides she wants to do . "My feeling was just because it's a true story that doesn't mean it can't also be beautiful. Set against the breathtaking expanse of the Mongolian steppe, THE EAGLE . Others were already on the trail, so Bell had to move quickly. I think if we didn't have him and that understanding of the landscape, we'd probably still be out there trying to shoot, trying to finish it. Asher Svidensky's photo that inspired 'The Eagle Huntress'Credit: Asher Svidensky NFS: Some documentary filmmakers embed ourselves in a situation, and others go in and out. "Up to that point," Bell says, "I'd been kind of alone and going a bit mad. Eagle huntress at Nura Eagle Festival, Kazakhstan, 2013 (Ruta Production/Shutterstock), FIG 2.4. I actually went in debt with the bank for another $12,000. Any telling of her story would carry a female empowerment message, even if this film does milk it for all its worth. But while the academic Adrienne Mayor suggests Bell went searching for these naysayers in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in Andrews' latest article about the film Bell says he just went round knocking on elders' doors, and all openly voiced disapproval. I know that at heart what she really wanted to do was go out hunting with her dad.". (Photo by Terry Allen). How did you make it look so seamless? "Elders and respected hunters blessed me some time ago," said the 25-year-old Makpal, "and I'm still getting their support." Keen, Dennis. Caters News . The Iliad can provide new insights on the role of motherhood among the ancient Greek gods, and by extension, amongst ancient mortal Greek women themselves. Archaeologists have been able to take a closer look at one of the United Kingdoms most famous shipwrecks. While The Eagle Huntress showed Aisholpan's father Nurgaiv passing on his hunting skills to his daughter with a calm wisdom, not all locals were depicted as being so supportive. Part of the films better-than-Disney magic comes from the fact that its protagonist's (. These stunning photographs show the changing face of a majestic centuries old Kazakh pastime tradition that still lives in the lands of mongolia - eagle hunters. What Does the Ending of 'American Psycho' Mean? Aimoldir Dayanbek and her father, Mana Dayanbek. Nirgidma with her eagle. Jan. 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1AuX2v0KGg&ebc=ANyPxKrGAA9rbsdHRmQPckpsIlvlfz650dckpgie6VKJ2qqe18vSjhT2qz6P9exypxTjrmLefR0a, Real Screen . At the 2013 festival in Nura she was awarded a prize by virtue of being the only female competing. A lot of things broke. It's clear that Bell approached his subject with the canny eye of a man trained in the art of crafting images to sell a message. "I started to train when I was 10 years old, going into the mountains with my dad," she told the BBC, while passing through Ulan Bator recently. [11] Chief Film Critics at The New York Times, Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott, called the film "a bliss out"[12] and "a movie that expands your sense of what is possible",[10] respectively. [4] It was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary.[5]. He was whispering, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, so of course I started crying as well. Aisholpan, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, commits to a family tradition going back 12 generations. "The pressure gave me more will and power. Director Otto Bell, however, denies all accusations that the film was scripted, acted or re-enacted. As a child she helped her father with his eagle and at 13 Makpal began training her own eagle Ak Zhelke (White Neck). For thousands of years this was how the nomadic peoples of the northern steppes from the Caucasus to Manchuria hunted for survival. Generally men used to participate in the festival at Ulgii, remarks Mongolian photographer Batzaya Choijiljav, but the younger generation of eagle hunters includes girls, ensuring its future. A soaring documentary of a feminist journey, an Israeli screwball comedy, Black Swan for kids, and a . Released November 2nd, 2016, 'The Eagle Huntress' stars Daisy Ridley, Nurgaiv Aisholpan, Nurgaiv Rys, Alma Dalaykhan The G movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 27 min, and received a user score of 71 . Especially in the winter.". December 20, 2016 at 1:44AM, Edited December 20, 1:54AM. The story of the Eagle Huntress is simple and heartwarming. Featured image: 13 year old Asholpan, Eagle Huntress. The Eagle Huntress needs no phony clashes or extensive re-enactments, for its hero is 13 year old Aisholpan, from Asia's Altai Mountains, the first female Kazakh in twelve generations to be a bona fide eagle huntress. NFS: Can you speak to some more of the gear that you used? She belongs to a family of nomads who spend their summers in a ger in the Altai Mountains and their winters in a house in town. http://www.svidensky.com/post-aspx-id-18, Thomson, Augusta. Makpal says Kazakh elders (with one exception) gave their blessing because they remembered that women used to hunt with horses, dogs, and eagles.. THE EAGLE HUNTRESS follows Aisholpan, a 13-year-old girl, as she trains to become the first female in twelve generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter, and rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been handed down from father to son for centuries. NFS: What do Aisholpan and her family think of the film? If they maybe can't read lines and lines of subtitles, this gives them little hand-holds to help navigate the film. According to Kottak, ___________ is a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe, which can reside in people, animals, plants, and objects. She ends up winning the competition, and her eaglet breaks a speed record in one of the events. Incredible article and inspiring story. Otto Bell: It sort of ballooned. Aisholpan (left) at school, in The Eagle Huntress.Credit:Asher Svidensky. Of course, finding a fox took forever. Then, two things happened: either Chaos or Gaia created the universe as we know it, or Ouranos and Tethys gave birth to the first beings. It's true, too, that he felt he had the makings of a cool little fable about female empowerment on his hands if only he could make it. NFS: You just had to have some good old-fashioned chutzpah. It is up for a Bafta award on Sunday night but missed out on an Oscar nomination, possibly because to some viewers it feels staged. Bell: When we did get money and things started to take off, we flew Simon over to sit with the colorist for a week and do the final mix. 2015. Today, the ancient arts of the brkitshi (berkutchi, eagle hunter) are carried on mainly by Kyrgyz and Kazakh nomadic groups who are now dispersed in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and It must have been small if you were all sleeping in the ger. We set aside about five days to film that final act [in which Aisholpan and her father go alone into the deep wilderness to hunt fox]. Shooting 'The Eagle Huntress'Credit: Andrew Yarme, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. There's a certain pride in their identity and this ancient tradition, so they quite liked exhibiting it. 150,000-Year-Old Pipes Baffle Scientists in China: Out of Place in Time? And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there existcountless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts thathave yet to be discovered and explained. Asian Conference on Asian Studies, International Academic Forum. 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