CULTURE

A tyrant’s softer side

Sergei Bodrov Sr. talks about his new film, “Mongol.”

By Alastair Gee

Staff Writer

For The St. Petersburg Times ‘Mongol’ features an international cast from China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

Genghis Khan, according to one popular view, was a scourge who pillaged and raped his way to creating the second-biggest empire the world has ever seen. But in Sergei Bodrov Sr.’s new film, “Mongol. Part One,” which was released last week, he is benevolent and as calm as a Zen monk. He gambols in fields with his wife. He’s a doting dad.

“In the West, he has a reputation as a tyrant,” the respected Russian director said Wednesday from Astana, Kazakhstan, where the film just opened. “In the East, in Asia, he’s a hero, and sometimes a god.”

Genghis Khan was born in 1162 in central Mongolia and by his death in 1227 had forged a Central Asian empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. His successors extended it as far as present-day Bulgaria and Ukraine, though it began to disintegrate in the 13th century. It was the largest contiguous empire in history, and only the British Empire covered more land.

With a budget of approximately $20 million, “Mongol” is a historical epic along the lines of “Spartacus” or “Braveheart.” The film was edited by Hollywood’s Zach Staenberg, who previously won an Oscar for his work on “The Matrix.” Bodrov’s drama aims to deconstruct the notion of Genghis Khan as a bloodthirsty murderer, and focuses on his early years of poverty and slavery instead of his later transcontinental conquests. An all-consuming love affair between Genghis Khan and his first wife, Borte, also features heavily. “Genghis Khan is not a popular man in Russia; his name is not well loved,” Bodrov said. “I’m telling a story and saying: ‘Look how it happened. Don’t believe what’s written in the old school textbooks. He abolished torture — not so many people know about that,” the director added. “And Mongolians used to keep slaves — he said no to that.”

Bodrov began directing in the 1970s and won an Oscar nomination for the 1996 film “Prisoner of the Mountains,” based on a short story set in the Caucasus by Leo Tolstoy. “Nomad,” Bodrov’s 2006 drama set in 18th-century Kazakhstan, had a $40 million budget and was the most expensive Kazakh film ever made, although it fared poorly with critics.

“Mongol” was shot over two years in farflung locations in Mongolia, northern China and Kazakhstan. The film is in Mongolian, which the actors playing Genghis Khan and his best friend, Japan’s Tadanobu Asano and Sun Hong-Lei from China, had to learn. Forty interpreters traveled with the film crew, translating between Chinese, Mongolian, Kazakh, Korean, Japanese, Uighur, Russian and English.

Bodrov said he didn’t think twice when choosing a non-Mongolian for the lead role. “I was looking for the best actor. It didn’t matter to me whether he was Mongolian. He had to be Asian, and he had to be the best.”

More stories by this section:

A master’s hands | Word’s Worth | Art for sale | Lowlifes in London | Space odyssey | In the spotlight | A talent to amuse | Austen powers

Or take part in the discussion below.