ARAVT

One of the better side effects of the streaming age is that all these different services – desperate to attract subscribers and starving for content – often provide wider access for foreign films that otherwise would never have been seen outside their homeland.  Streaming on Prime, Aravt is a Mongolian film – and by that I mean an actual Mongolian film – not just a film about Mongols.  This was made by Mongols, starring Mongols, and was shot in actual Mongolia, providing a degree of authenticity and verisimilitude that is a pleasure to see just by itself.

Set in the 12th century, during the reign of Genghis Khan, this is a story about a unit of soldiers – an aravt or what is sometimes called an arban.  This was the most basic unit of Mongol military organization, consisting of ten men who lived and fought and rode together.  Ten aravts made a zuun, ten zuuns made a mingghan of a thousand men, and ten mingghans made a tumen, sometimes called an ordu, from which comes the word “horde”.

So rather than a story about massive armies clashing on the battlefield, this is more like a squad-level movie, where the aravt is sent off to find a renowned physician to deal with a spreading plague on the orders of Genghis Khan – though neither said plague nor the khan are shown onscreen.  The rest of the tale consists of them trying to carry out their mission in the face of the menace of a rival clan, recently defeated by the Khan, who are still rebellious and determined to fight.

The cinematography is first-rate, and they take great advantage of the vast, primal landscape of Mongolia, while not restricting themselves to open steppe.  We see hills and forests and foggy mornings, as well as the sweep of distant mountains and the endless horizons.  The costuming is pretty much flawless, and while the prop weapons don’t always look the best, they are better than what we usually get in films like this.

The cast is actually quite good, and despite it sometimes being difficult to tell actors apart under their very similar outfits, everybody does good work here.  The spoken Mongolian adds yet another layer of authenticity to this, and even if the subtitles are sometimes not great, actual mongols speaking actual Mongolian, riding real steppe ponies across the genuine Mongolian steppe is still a thing to see.

The pacing of the movie is the part most likely not to sit well with a Western audience, as the script is slow, and sometimes is a bit of a slog.  The film spends a lot of time developing the characters, but sometimes you are wishing for a bit of action rather than yet another fireside conversation.  The movie is surprisingly talky, and rather than a story with action peppered along the way, it is mostly building up to a big, final battle.

Once said battle arrives, then the film shows off some rather good choreography, with a lot of visceral impact.  It’s not a very bloody battle, and what blood there is, is mostly CG, which looks a bit rough.  The riding and stunts are really good though, making the battle exciting even if the action is not always as clear as it could be.  The script suffers from a case of there being too many factions and too many characters with their own agendas, and sometimes you can’t tell what people are doing or where, and you see plot elements introduced that never really pay off.  That might be a result of editing, as the cutting can be choppy in places.  Important things happen and you don’t see who did them, and they don’t seem to be given enough weight.

Anyone interested in Mongol history should check this out, as the degree of accuracy is off the charts compared to what you usually get in movies about the Mongol Empire.  Also, it is cool to see a story set in this time and place that is not about Genghis Khan himself, and not about some massive invasion or huge stakes.  This is much more the kind of plot you use for a Sword & Sorcery story, as it is a small group of men pitted against both the environment and implacable enemies, all in a quest to satisfy honor and seeking death before disgrace.