LeslieMcM

With stunning applicability today, this film portrays a freedom- loving people and their amazing leader struggling nobly to survive Russian imperialism in the late 1800s. But that is not the primary reason for American audiences to appreciate this movie. Skillfully produced entirely in Kyrgyzstan by Kyrgyz filmmakers, it is a powerful, fascinating, gorgeous, and inspiring historical epic about an extraordinary woman—Kurmanjan Datka, Queen of the Mountains—who led the nomadic Kyrgyz people for decades with remarkable wisdom, character, and strength in the midst of great national and personal challenges. The story offers a deeply cultural and transcendently moving experience to every viewer of any nationality. As a leader, Kurmanjan Datka succeeded in ways unmatched by other Kyrgyz rulers, yet the problematic influences and results of her era in history leave the Kyrgyz people still seeking consistent foundational principles for peace, stability, unity, prosperity, and true freedom. This film brilliantly highlights both the leadership qualities and the unresolved questions that remain important to Kyrgyz people, and instructive to Americans, even today.