Studio: Picturehouse Studios
Starring: Aliya, Channing Tatum, Tadanobu Asano, Tadanobu Asano, Tegen Ao, Ying Bai
Directed By: Sergei Bodrov
Written By: Arif Aliyev, Sergei Bodrov
Produced By: Anton Melnik, Sergei Bodrov, Sergey Selyanov
Rated: R
In Theaters: 2008-06-06
DVD Release: 2008-10-14
Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama
Plot:

It is the year 1172 and nine-year-old Temudgin (Odnyam Odsuren) rides across the flat, broad steppe alongside several horsemen and his father Esugei (Ba Sen), a tribal leader, or khan.  They are paying a critical visit to lands ruled by the Merkits, a fierce tribe whom Esugei crossed years ago when he kidnapped a Merkit warrior’s wife.  Now Esugei needs to make peace with his enemy, and so he is bringing his young son -- the child of the woman he kidnapped -- to choose a Merkit wife.

Happening upon the camp of a friendly clan, Esugei decides to stop for a night’s rest.  There, Temudgin meets Borte (Bayartsetseg Erdenebat), a 10-year-old girl with mischievous eyes and the confidence to question to the regal young visitor without being spoken to first.  Impressed and intrigued by the encounter, Temudgin soon informs his father that he wants to choose a bride from among this very clan.  Such a match would doubtless cause even more trouble with the spurned Merkits; yet even in his anger, Esugei cannot help but appreciate his son’s firm resolve.  The next morning, the clan’s girls line up for inspection, and Temudgin makes his choice: Borte.  Honored, Borte’s father readily agrees to the match, which will take place in five years.  As the betrothed couple says their goodbyes, Temudgin gives Borte a symbol of his dedication: a wishbone, which he promises will bring her whatever she desires.

It is the last peaceful moment that Temudgin will know for many, many years.  While pausing for a meal on their way home, Esugei is poisoned by the leader of an enemy tribe and dies in his son’s arms.  Tradition decrees that Esugei’s title pass to his oldest son, Temudgin.  But Targutai (Amadu Mamadakov), a warrior steeped in simmering resentment, has other plans.  No sooner has Esegei’s burial ceremony ended than Targutai orders his tribesmen to loot the dead khan’s camp and seize horses and livestock.  Temudgin’s mother Oleun (Aliya) furiously denounces the usurper, vowing him that her son will avenge this betrayal.  As the traitors desert the plundered camp, Targutai threatens to murder Temudgin as soon as he is grown. 

Temudgin is now a fugitive, unable to stay with his family if he is to have a chance of surviving.  Alone and without a horse, the boy faces a grim future as the seasons change and food grows ever scarcer.  One morning, Temudgin is found unconscious in the snow by a group of boys, led by a likeably cocky tribal prince named Jamukha (Amarbold Tuvshinbayar).  These two boys – each bright, self-assured and astute – form a fast friendship.  Pledging eternal loyalty to one another, they become blood-brothers in a traditional ceremony. 

Temudgin’s respite with Jamukha’s tribe is cut short when they are discovered by Targutai.  Temudgin is captured and locked in a cague, a heavy wooden yoke that confines his neck and extends past his shoulders.  His movement obstructed by the hulking cague, Temudgin can neither feed himself nor drink without the aid of his jailers.  Despite his powerless state, the grave, watchful child inspires respect and a certain foreboding in those wise enough to pay attention.  And when Targutai and his men break camp and leave the shackled boy behind, Temudgin stoically resumes his solitary existence.  As he has before, he makes his way to the Sacred Mountain that is the rocky sanctuary of Tengri, God of the Blue Sky.  He prays to be freed.  And he survives.

Temudgin manages to elude his enemy until 1186, the Year of the Fire Horse.  Now a young man, Temudgin (Asano Tadanobu) faces certain and painful death when he is again caught by Targutai, who is now a khan.  But even in this dire circumstance, Temudgin is defiant and unafraid.  He has become a warrior, his years of exile having honed his senses and his skills.  Alert to the weaknesses of those around him, he engineers an escape of devastating speed, strength and cunning. 

Having at last secured a horse, he journeys to find Borte, who has seldom left in his thoughts during his years of trial and deprivation.  A lovely young woman who remains as spirited as ever, Borte (Khulan Chuluun) joyously greets the man she has steadfastly awaited.  Together, they set out in search of Temudgin’s family, Temudgin gazing in silent awe at his beloved as he rides by her side.  After a happy sojourn with Oleun and Temudgin’s siblings, the young couple sets up their own camp on a plateau overlooking the verdant grasslands that spread from horizon to horizon.

Meanwhile, word of Temudgin’s marriage to Borte has reached the Merkit tribe.  Determined to finally achieve his revenge for the long-ago abduction of his wife, Oleun’s first husband Chiledu (Sai Xing Ga) leads a party of warriors to Oleun’s camp, intending to kidnap Borte.  Temudgin and Borte take to their horses in advance of the raiding party, but as they reach a river an arrow pierces Temudgin’s back.  Borte’s quick actions ensure that her husband will live, but at the price of her own freedom. 

Once recovered, Temudgin has but one goal: to rescue Borte from the Merkits.  For help in mounting an attack, he turns to his childhood blood-brother, Jamukha (Honglei Sun), who has become a prosperous and powerful khan.  That Temudgin would not simply take a new wife or two is incomprehensible to Jamukha, and Mongols simply do not wage war over a woman.  But such is the depth of the blood-brothers’ loyalty and love that Jamukha agrees to lend his forces, albeit on the condition that the motive for war remain secret.  And Jamukha, not Temudgin, sets the timetable for the attack, forcing Temudgin to wait until the following autumn.

When the attack does come, it is merciless.  Thousands of horsemen clash in savage battle on the rocky fields of Merkit territory.  Slashing through his opponents, Temudgin seizes a Merkit warrior’s animal hide mask and disguises himself in order to penetrate the Merkit camp.  There, he finds Borte, who has proven herself a formidable fighter as well.     

With the Merkits vanquished, their treasures and animals are seized by the victors.  Like all Mongol chieftains, Jamukha takes the lion’s share of the booty for himself and himself alone.  Temudgin, however, claims only a fraction of the remaining loot, distributing the rest among the warriors who fought under his command.  Jamukha is bemused by his friend’s unorthodox approach, while the soldiers take note among themselves.

Temudgin has set out on his own path as a Mongol khan, and his considerate treatment of his soldiers is but the beginning.  He is not only a fearless warrior, but a man with a deep knowledge of his own mind and an iron will.  Jamukha had envisioned a partnership between them, with Temudgin as his second-in-command.  However, it is not in Temudgin’s nature to be any man’s subordinate, and he will not be dissuaded from returning to his ancestral lands with Borte and his small band of tribesmen. 

If Temudgin’s parting is a wound, a worse insult is yet to come.  Two of Jamukha’s warriors desert the tribe for the promise of better treatment under Temudgin.  Temudgin endorses the soldiers’ freedom to choose and accepts them into his clan, infuriating Jamukha’s brother Taichar (Bu Ren).  Unbeknownst to his brother,   Taichar organizes an expedition to raid Temudgin’s horses – and is killed in the attempt. 

Taichar’s death inevitably places Temudgin and Jamukha – blood-brothers who love one another still – on the path to war.  Temudgin’s old enemy, Targutai, soon visits Jamukha to propose an alliance.  Though it gives him no joy, Jamukha accepts. 

Temudgin and his clan are now in a race against time, aware that two massive armies are in pursuit.  Under his leadership, Borte and the other wives and children are dispatched homeward with a guard of warriors.  Before parting, Borte entrusts him with the wishbone he gave her long ago; a symbol of their love and a promise of return.

Facing two enemy armies with reduced manpower, Temudgin leads a valiant and strategically brilliant fight, but the outcome is never in doubt.  Jamukha claims the spoils of war, and the most important prize -- Temudgin.  But as he faces his prisoner, Jamukha is forced to confront the fact that while Temudgin may be defeated, he can never be conquered.  Temudgin will humbly ask his blood-brother’s forgiveness, but he cannot grant Jamukha’s wish to hear him beg for his life.  And so Jamukha chooses a punishment worse than death.  He makes Temudgin a slave.

Thus begins a long and wretched period that finds Temudgin living in chains, sold as property and finally caged in the Tangut kingdom.  Treated like an animal; encrusted with grime; gawked at and mocked, Temudgin endures his privations with smoldering rage, his dignity and might undimmed. 

His day will come.  He will send a message to Borte and she will find him.  And when she arrives to free him from bondage, the man who will become Genghis Khan will go forth to meet his destiny as the greatest warrior the world has ever known.  The leader who imposed the rule of law on the wanton tribes of the Mongol lands, who conquered more territory than any other warrior before or since, the khan of all Mongols: Genghis Khan of the Great Steppe.