Set during the British occupation of Mongolia in 1920, this is the half heroic, half ironic story of Bair, a young Mongolian hunter-turned-partisan who is captured. A document in his possession identifies him as a descendent of Genghis Khan. The interventionists decide to ‘resurrect’ him as a puppet king. However Bair escapes and leads the Mongolian army against the interventionists. The intensity of the drama, strong feeling for landscape and dramatic use of montage (4 or 5 times the usual number of shots for a feature of this length) have been compared with the work of D. W. Griffith. In effect, the film is one long chase which takes on mythic proportions while the plot takes on metaphoric and lyrical dimensions (the British army is literally ‘blown away’). The emotional impact disguises the methodological rigour of Pudovkin’s construction. Also available on 16mm and VHS.
Credits: Director, producer, Vsevolod Pudovkin ; script, Osip Brik ; photography, Anatoli Golovnya ; music, N. Kryukov.
Cast: Valeri Inkizhinov.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
F000068
Language
Unknown
Sound/audio
Silent
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
35mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)