The Eagle Huntress (2016)

Directed by: Otto Bell | 83 minutes | documentary, adventure, sports | Starring: Aisholpan Nurgaiv, Rys Nurgaiv, Daisy Ridley

Hunting with golden eagles is an age-old tradition in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Beyond the cultural significance of the activity, it is also a means of survival in the inhospitable steppes of the Central Asian interior. Growing crops is hardly possible in this barren landscape, while potential prey animals such as hares or foxes are often difficult to detect on the wide plains. Hence, a pair of true eagle eyes (a bird of prey’s eyesight is vastly superior to ours) come in very handy.

But eagle hunting is also mainly a male affair in the Mongolian nomadic communities. In ‘The Eagle Huntress’ we follow the adventures of the young girl Aisholpan. Since her childhood she has been helping her father train the graceful golden eagles. But Aisolphan wants more: her dream is to train an eagle herself and hunt with the bird of prey. At the age of thirteen, she decides, in consultation with her father, to adopt an eagle and turn the feathered robber into a real fox hunter. Will the girl manage to break through the ancient traditions and be accepted by the village’s elders and traditional eagle hunters?

Director Otto Bell originally comes from a commercial film environment. The lion’s share of his work consists of corporate films for clients with a substantial film and marketing budget. The idea to create ‘The Eagle Huntress’ came about when Bell came across a well-known photo series of Aisolphan and her eagle in 2015. With a modest crew and resources, he decided to travel to Central Asia to film the extraordinary story of a brave girl in a predominantly patriarchal community. Bell’s commercial background certainly shines through in the way ‘The Eagle Huntress’ was filmed. The film looks quite slick from a cinematographic point of view. Panoramic images of impressive mountain landscapes, often shot with drones, are interspersed with adrenaline-inducing action shots. Large parts of the film are also staged, a somewhat unusual approach for a documentary. Although it is fortunately not very flashy, that choice detracts a bit from the authenticity of the print.

The search for a suitable narrator led the makers to Star Wars actress Daisey Ridley at the very last moment. Unfortunately, her somewhat childish-sounding voice-over doesn’t add too much to the film and the told story. The down-to-earth and captivating protagonist Aisolphan has enough charm, character, spunk and charisma to convey the message ‘The Eagle Huntress’ wants to tell completely under his own power.

‘The Eagle Huntress’ is without a doubt a film that can rely on a number of strong points. The story that is told has a high adventurous, romantic and idealistic quality, while the images of the uncultivated steppe landscape and the hunting eagles are often stunningly beautiful. It’s just a shame that director Otto Bell occasionally tries to coat the film with a Disney-esque sauce. An unnecessary move, which does damage the credibility of an otherwise beautifully filmed print.