The pink cheek of her

The masculine Mongolian world of hunting with eagles falls prey to a doughty young female.

In a film full of hardy victories and overcome odds, the greatest thrill in The Eagle Huntress is watching an array of fur-hatted old men shuffle nervously. What causes this great discomfort is a pink-cheeked 13-year-old named Aisholpan, who has decided to take up the proud Mongolian tradition of training golden eagles. This just won’t do. The grandees sigh and fumble. “Women should be making tea and milking cows,”

Mongolian girls can do anything: Aisholpan sends her bird into thin air. one says. She can’t go out in the middle of winter, another explains, “she’ll get cold”. Another chap thinks it’s all pointless because she’ll have to get married at some point (though it clearly didn’t stop him).

What we’re seeing in the wrinkled faces of these chiefly reactionaries is not concern, but indignation. Unperturbed, Aisholpan and her toothy father challenge the old ways. It’s in their blood and fibre. The custom has run in the family for hundreds of years and no crusty prohibition will halt it.

The goal is to attend the annual Golden Eagle Festival, in which the hunters of the region gather to flash feathers and compete in elaborate headgear. Into this chest-beating, masculine contest steps Aisholpan, her bird cowled, tethered and looking more like a henchman than a pet. Cheerfully, she goes about showing them what’s what.

At times, The Eagle Huntress is perhaps too literal in ramming home its “you can do anything” message. And barring its centrepiece competition, the film lacks a little suspense. Nevertheless, there’s enough verisimilitude in this portrait to stop it becoming too cloying: these nomadic hunters exist far from glamour or comfort.

Indeed, Aisholpan’s school seems to be a repurposed Soviet-era military barracks. Their contentedness is in paying respect to ancient traditions, only living on what the parched land provides. There’s dignity in this way of being, and honour, too. Against the vast steppe and rising peaks, you get the sense The Eagle Huntress documents 90 minutes of a millenniaold way of life. And what a lovely and uplifting hour and a half it is.

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