A historical tribal war film which shows the origins and creation of the historical myth of Genghis Khan.

It is difficult to write a review of a film which is devoid of all complex concepts. A review true to the film would run something like: Father, child, mating, enemy, death, running, belief, brother, prisoner, fire, blood, running, belief, revenge, running, horses, woman, mother, battle, blood, enemy, battle, slave, running, battle, blood, mating, battle... Leading swiftly onto the second part of the trilogy which, for those who will bother to see it, will hopefully broaden its conceptual vocabulary.

There are few undisputed facts about Genghis Khan's early life, and no story about this period can have much factual basis. So if it is historically inaccurate, one would hope for it to offer interesting concepts, which is not the case, or, at the very least, be entertaining... But no. Aside from the "love" story, the film does not fall into the Hollywood trap of presenting a tangible, anthropomorphised, narrative of a barbaric character. This brutal vision may be true to history, but it makes for a depressing and unenlightening view of humanity, war and history in 12th century north-eastern Asia (later to be unified and become the Mongol Empire thanks to Genghis Khan).

The film is beautifully shot and yet, to me, it felt like a thorough waste of 126 minutes.