Review of The Eagle Huntress (2016) by Argyn K — 04 Dec 2016

This is not a documentary in sense that I'm used to, but it's beautifully shot. It accurately shows the daily routine of lives of Kazakh eagle hunters in Mongolia. I haven't been to Mongolia but am very familiar with nomads in Kazakhstan. There are very few of them left, because most people are settlers these days whether in urban areas or villages. Only herders (shepherds) roam. So if you're interested in seeing how these people get by day to day, this movie would be a great introduction, quite accurate and well filmed. Also, I haven't seen a movie in a long time where there's so much Kazakh language is captured. There's limited narration and for the most part it's Kazakhs speaking.

The landscape shots and generally cinematography is exceptional for the most part, that's one of other two main things you should be after when going to the movie. The second thing is eagle hunter training.

I was a bit disappointed with a the final hunting scene. It's exceptionally difficult to film, so I understand why. Still, they should have spent more time and be more patient and shot the actual hunt end to end. The scene was clearly staged or heavily edited. There are parts which are not staged, and that are beautiful, but I'm assuming that the film makers ran out of time and decided to get the scene done by editing.

Now, the premise of the movie that somehow she was the first ever eagle huntress is ridiculous. There were and are many other women hunting with eagles both Kazakhs and foreigners, and it's absolutely no big deal for a woman to get into this craft. Kazakhs were always open about this. All a woman needs is the strong desire, because it's simply difficult. So, this whole narrative of a female breaking a barrier is a nonsense, but strangely it didn't spoil the movie for me. I understand that it's been made for Western audiences, so whatever goes is fine with me.