This weekend I watched, Tomiris, Warrior Princess a historical Kazakh movie!
Well, yes, even the Kazakhs are filming historical movies and, perhaps it will
surprise you, it’s a fine movie.
The film deals with the story of Tomiris the queen of the Messagete a
nomadic people who dominated the steppes of present-day Kazakhstan in the
distant sixth century BC.
I will not talk about fidelity to the "real" facts, the film is
freely inspired by the Stories of Herodotus that are famous because they were themselves
very freely inspired to reality ... so maybe there is something true at the
bottom, but difficult to say.
Surely, it would be possible to contest a lot of details and an expert would
probably confirm my suspicion, that the composite arches that appear in the movie
are of a much later type, but let's leave it alone and for this time and let's
enjoy the story, at least, and it is already a lot, you do not see stirrups in
the shooting on horseback and the tactics of war employed by our Tomiris are
realistic and plausible (such as faking the retreat of the light cavalry to
lure enemies in pursuit and ambush them).
Neither the characters nor the dialogues have are from Shakespeare, but for
a pure adventure film they are more than fine. Also some fight scenes are
really too choreographed with jumps, turns and double swords, but to partial
redemption the director himself seems to realize how excessive they are and in
a scene of delicious black humor pushes on the accelerator of exaggeration, showing
our protagonist, in the thick of the melee, flirting with a bold young man who
follows her step by step killing people, boasting of his strength and trying to make, at the same time, witty
jokes, to get noticed and trying to impress her. He succeeds and after a peculiarly
truculent killing he proposes himself and she accepts him, and love triumphs
between a quartering and a beheading. Love wins also in the steppes of Central
Asia.
To appreciate the total lack of political correctness, Kazakhstan is far
from Hollywood, for once there are not characters of color scattered around without
logic and historical common sense and above all the filmic Tomiris is not
ashamed to be what she was historically: when its opponents claim that living
in peace and trading could yield more, she proudly claims that her people have
always lived on robbery, looting and raids, that this is what makes them
valiant and does not see the reason to change.
The only concession to a possible modern sensibility, to understand fully what
we are talking about, is a slightly thoughtful look as she watches a child
crying desperately next to the corpses of his parents in an enemy village just
set on fire.
Well, in one scene she also opposes human sacrifices, but for reasons that
would not please a supporter of social justice: men can fight and women must be
spared because their wombs can generate many warriors, her own words. Warrior
Queen, but traditionalist.
The film, however, has raised some interesting international controversies,
linked precisely to the ethnicity of the actors. The film is Kazakh, aimed to a Kazakh audiences
with Kazakh actors, but as the Iranian government rightly protested, Tomiris
and her Messageti were an Indo-European people who spoke an Iranian language,
certainly not Turks like Kazakhs. Controversy that reminds us how important is history,
or its distortion, in the conception of
national identities.
Last note to underline is that it is a film about a female character,
strong and independent, developed in a islamic country! According to several
observers the film is part of a broader
strategy of the strongman of Kazakhstan Nūrsūltan
Äbışūly Nazarbaev, to prepare the succession to power of his daughter Dariga, showing
to the beloved Kazakh people (who in the last elections elected him, very
freely, with a net 97.5% of the votes) that women can make strong and capable
rulers. Good luck to the Kazakhs.
The film, if I have interested you with these lines, it’s on Prime Video.
If you want to know more about the nomadic peoples of Central Asia I
recommend the fantastic Osprey Elite 120
Mounted Archers of the Steppe 600 BC–AD
1300 by Antony Karasulas and with the fantastic illustrations
by Angus McBride.
To deepen the historical influence of the myth of the steppe peoples I send you to the series of articles by Bret Devereaux,"Fremen Mirage", do not miss them, you can find them on his blog
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