THE EAGLE HUNTRESS
UK/ Mongolia, 2016, 87 minutes, Colour.
Narrated by Daisy Ridley.
Directed by Otto Bell.
This documentary is set in remote areas of Mongolia. It opens on the mountains, rugged, snow-swept. It then introduces us to a Mongolian hunter, eagle on his arm, riding a tough horse up the mountainside in order to sacrifice a lamb so that the eagle might eat and then, after seven years with the hunter, fly to freedom.
One of the main pleasures of watching this film is to see the range of Mongolian countryside, the mountains in various seasons, the vast plains, the tents for the nomadic people to carry around and live in. And this is contrasted with scenes of modernity, 21st-century Mongolia, the children going to school, the classrooms and buildings familiar from almost every culture, father picking up daughter on a motorbike, and the celebration of a festival for Eagle Hunters.
The title belongs to a Aisholpan, a young girl who turns 13, goes to school like all the others, boards at the school with her brother and sister five weekdays and then returns to the family settlement on weekends. She states that she would like to become a doctor. She does all the chores but has a desire to be an Eagle Huntress. Her father is very supportive, her mother willing that she do this. But, there is a collage of the Mongolian elders, all very solemn patriarchs, giving their views that it is inappropriate for a female to be a Huntress, saying very patriarchal things about the place of women, the fact that they should cook and prepare the house, and that they are weaker than men, which all excludes them from eagle hunting.
The father, however, encourages his daughter and takes her out into the mountains looking for eaglets and, when one is found, lowering her down the mountainside so that she can put a blanket over the eaglet, send it up to her father while he pulls her to the top. There are many scenes where she trains the eagle, her father coaching her, her growing assurance in handling the eagle.
It is not a surprise that when there is a festival and competition, it is she who wins it. The patriarchs will have to reconsider, some are unwilling to change, others becoming a little more open…
For the rest of the film, the audience accompanies father and daughter and their very rugged horses as they travel up the mountainside’s in search of foxes, whose pelts are used to make furs for the family and community for the bleak winters. It is impressive for the horses who tend to be overlooked, trying to balance themselves on ice, going flank deep into snow, yet persevering on the track.
The film doesn’t make it easy for Aishopen to let her Eagle do its work for the first time and capture the fox. There are several attempts but, ultimately, success.
The film shows the society in transition, the long traditions of the nomads, the patriarchs, the Eagle Hunters as well as modern schooling (it would seem that the children are also learning English), contemporary transport, the use of the radio and internationality despite the remoteness in the 21st-century.
1. The introduction to another world and way of life?
2. Mongolia, the locations, the mountains and the seasons, the plains, the town and the school, tents and homes, the interiors and detail, the Hunters’ show? The musical score? The final song and achievement?
3. The title, Aisholpan, 13, her skills and interests, wanting to be a doctor, wanting to be an Eagle Huntress, the training, detail, the competition, her achievement, happiness?
4. The introduction, the grandfather, going into the mountains, the horse, the foxes, the hunt, the fur and their use, the long traditions?
5. The Eagles, the power, the filming of the Eagles and their flight, swooping, with their prey? Skills and release? Seven years, the sacrifice of the lamb, the eagle eating it, then going free?
6. A male society, the range of the elders, their comments on women, weakness, domestic, not suited to hunting?
7. Aisholpan and the introduction, her age, going to school, the classes, the father picking her up on the bike, the mother, the chores around the house, her brother and sister, boarding at the school, the girlish friendships?
8. The work of the father, his belief in his daughter, the episode of getting the eaglet, lowering his daughter down, the dangers, her courage, covering the eagle with the blanket, sending it up, her going to the top again?
9. The training, the family pride, the detail?
10. Ordinary life, the meals, the cooking, the radio, domestic, the animals?
11. The competition, Aisholpan, her skills, winning, the gathering? The elders, some changing their mind, some not?
12. The hunt, the mountains, with her father, the horses, the ice, drinking from the ice, the flanks and the snow? Continuing on? The search of the fox, the various attempts,
initial failures, success?
13. The achievement, 21st-century? Young women in the 21st century and Mongolia? And the final song?
