The movie is an epic story of a young Genghis Khan and how events in his early life lead him to become a legendary conqueror. The 9-year-old Temüjin is taken on a trip by his father to select a girl as his future wife. He meets Börte, who says she would like to be chosen, which he does. He promises to return after five years to marry her. Temüjin’s father is poisoned on the trip, and dies. As a boy Temüjin passes through starvation, humiliations and even slavery, but later with the help of Börte he overcomes all of his childhood hardships to become one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever known. —IMDb
Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov (Russian: Серге́й Влади́мирович Бодро́в; born June 28, 1948) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated Russian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer.
Bodrov was born in Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR, USSR (now Russia). In the post-Soviet period he emigrated to the United States. His son, actor Sergei Bodrov, Jr. was killed in an avalanche in the mountains of the North Caucasus on September 20, 2002 while shooting his film which was tentatively titled The Messenger.
Bodrov’s grandmother was ethnic Buryat which influenced his decision to film the movie Mongol.
Bodrov currently has an apartment in Los Angeles and a ranch in Arizona. He is married to American film consultant Carolyn Cavallaro. —Wikipedia
This film was a revolution. It truly showed me how amazing foreign films can be, and I learned so much about one man's quest. What was unique was the fact that it was showing the early years of Genghis's life, and it shows you how he rose to lead the largest empire in the world to date. And even though a warlord, you can see he had so much appreciation for life and his family.
Genghis Khan, sympathetic king of the people? If Sergei Bodrov is to be believed: yes. His tale of Khan’s ascent to power from childhood, Mongol, tells of how he kept his ideals and the laws of Mongolia… read review
Bodrov admittedly took some artistic liberties with historical facts, given that there are large gaps in Temujin/Genghis Khan’s known personal history, especially in his earlier years. Setting that… read review