The Eagle Huntress

G

Released Nov 2, 2016

1h 27m

Documentary

TRAILER

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List

94%

127 Reviews

Tomatometer

86%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Aishol-pan, a 13-year-old girl, trains to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter and rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been handed down from father to son for centuries. While there are many old Kazakh eagle hunters who vehemently reject the idea of any female taking part in their ancient tradition, Aisholpan's father, Nurgaiv, believes that a girl can do anything a boy can, as long as she's determined.

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Critics Consensus

Effectively stirring and bolstered by thrilling visuals, The Eagle Huntress uses its heartwarming message to fill up a feature that might have made for an even more powerful short film.

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Maxim K

Perfect score, perfect scenery and animals

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/16/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Good movie for everyone.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The scenery in this isn't the only thing of beauty, the relationship between Aishlopan, the eagle huntress and her father is so endearing, and Aishlopan is adorable. I was just willing her to succeed all the way through, so thrilled that the Eagle festival panel judged her fairly. It would be great to have a catch up with her in a few years to see what she is doing. I just loved that Universal 'look' that Aishlopans Mother gives her Father when she starts talking about going to the Eagle Festival :)

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

- The Eagle Huntress is a majestic adventure. - To be honest, films about hunting don't really appeal to my kale-munching vegetarian self but The Eagle Huntress had a touching message with magnificent visual exposition that even this hippie couldn't argue with. The story follows the impressive teenager Aisholpan Nurgaiv. She's a nomadic Mongolian who hails from a long line of champion eagle hunters. And just to be clear, she hunts wild game with her trained eagle, she doesn't hunt eagles. Aisholpan's father, Rys Nurgaiv, is training her to become the first female eagle hunter in Mongolia. That's enough awesome badassery to justify a trip to the theater but the film really shines in its intimate portrayal of the culture and home life of the Nurgaiv family. Narrator Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) alerts us to the cultural and familial significance of what we're seeing on screen. This format worked wonderfully when showing the family packing up their temporary home, removing the covering, and loading all of the load bearing poles into a rather rusted truck. As The Eagle Huntress progresses, we also see how children live, go to school part-time in boarding schools and have fun. Aisholpan thrives in all of these environments. Although the documentary is beautiful, the message of female empowerment and pioneering spirit is rather explicit and lacking in nuance. It's clear that this is a directorial debut for Otto Bell. At times it felt as though the scenes were staged. A scene where Rys asks his father to bless Aisholpan and her brand new eaglet, though heart-warming in intention, is very stiff and lacking in authenticity. Luckily the film captures our astonishment as we tag along for the eaglet capture, a male-dominated tournament and eventually the true test of will - hunting foxes in the freezing mountains. As Aisholpan faces each of these tests, we are met with the opinions of a select group of elders who doubt her at every turn. The elders' judgements exemplify the message of Aisholpan's triumph over inequality. It gets pretty heavy handed but it's a good message so it's hard to take umbrage. I'm generally not a squeamish vegetarian but at the end of many majestic swoops and tender eagle pets, there were bloody animal innards for me to turn away from. Despite my queasiness, Aisholpan's ability to deal with animals pre and post blood with literal strength and metaphorical tenderness blew me away. She was like a real life Katniss from The Hunger Games or maybe, more fittingly, a real life Rey from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I giggled along with her girlfriends who asked how she could touch eagles and I felt the same admiration. She declared that she wasn't afraid of them. It's so simple and so beautiful to find strength in this young girl's grace. I was in awe. ---------- This review was first published on Narrative Muse, http://narrativemuse.co/movies/the-eagle-huntress, and was written by Melissa Balint. Narrative Muse curates the best books and movies by and about women and non-binary folk on our website http://narrativemuse.co and our social media channels.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A light, but compelling and well-shot film

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/12/18

Full Review

steve w

Stunning photography and fascinating insight into the life of nomads, who live as their ancestors have lived in the harsh Altai mountains, but also have solar panels and wear Le Coq Sportif tops. Since it is a documentary maybe one judges by different standards, but I found that it didn't go very deep into the tension between the new world, where girls are encouraged to follow their dreams, and the old, where men hunt and women stay at home and cook. This could have made for some powerful drama, but was reduced to some caricature comments from the old hunters and a few scowls when Aisholpan turned up for the first Eagle festival. And for her to win outright at her first attempt smacks rather of the world of Disney. An enjoyable enough watch though.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

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Otto Bell

Director

Daisy Ridley

Narrator

Aisholpan Nurgaiv

Actor

Rys Nurgaiv

Actor

Stacey Reiss

Producer

Sharon Chang

Producer

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The Eagle Huntress: Trailer 2

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The Eagle Huntress: Trailer 1

1:39

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Stephen Romei

The Australian

Perhaps the director has fudged it a bit, but his intention was to make a beautiful film about one girl from a place and a culture we know little about. That he has done.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 17, 2017

Full Review

Paul Byrnes

Sydney Morning Herald

Can we call this documentary, or is it some kind of hybrid, when so much of it is constructed for the camera?

Rated: 2.5/5

Mar 15, 2017

Full Review

Kate Erbland

indieWire

A soaring, sweet documentary that welcomes its audience into an unexpected new arena.

Rated: B+

Jan 2, 2017

Full Review

David Bax

Battleship Pretension

The Eagle Huntress provides meaning. Sadly, it does so via mostly forgettable platitudes.

Jan 4, 2021

Full Review

Joanne Laurier

World Socialist Web Site

The Eagle Huntress is a lively and unusual encounter with a remote population and their customs...

Aug 13, 2020

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David Lamble

Bay Area Reporter

A hypnotically lensed coming-of-age tale.

Jun 9, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Aishol-pan, a 13-year-old girl, trains to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter and rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been handed down from father to son for centuries. While there are many old Kazakh eagle hunters who vehemently reject the idea of any female taking part in their ancient tradition, Aisholpan's father, Nurgaiv, believes that a girl can do anything a boy can, as long as she's determined.

Director: Otto Bell
Producer: Morgan Spurlock, Daisy Ridley, Jeremy Chilnick, Dan Cogan, Regina K. Scully, Marc H. Simon, Barbara Dobkin
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co: Sony Pictures Classics, Kissaki Films, Stacey Reiss, 19340 Productions
Rating: G
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 2, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 7, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.2M
Runtime: 1h 27m

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