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The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: 22 May 2015 13:36:00
The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

The Heir to Genghis Khan (1928) [2012]
A Film by Vsevolod Pudovkin
DVD9 + DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 4:3 | 01:43:27 | 7,36 Gb + 3,66 Gb
Disc 1: Score AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps with Russian intertitles and English subs + Extras
Disc 2: Score AC3 2.0 @ 256 Kbps with English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese subs
Genre: Drama, War

In 1918 a simple Mongol herdsman escapes to the hills after brawling with a western capitalist fur trader who cheats him. In 1920 he helps the partisans fight for the Soviets against the occupying army. However he is captured when the army tries to requisition cattle from the herdsmen at the same time as the commandant meets with the reincarnated Grand Lama. After being shot, the army discovers an amulet that suggests he was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. They find him still alive, so the army restores his health and plans to use him as the head of a Mongolian puppet regime.

IMDB | Amazon.co.uk | Wikipedia | Rotten Tomatoes

In his last silent film, Storm Over Asia, Pudovkin changed direction by creating a non-Russian plot. Although the film deals with political situations, it is not about a Soviet worker, farmer or mother– but about a Mongolian, and for this Pudovkin received a lot of condemnation by the film critics of his time.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

The chronicle is set in 1918 (at the time of the Civil War) on the Mongolian steppe. The narrative is focused on one character; the brave Mongol hunter Bair. He comes into a precarious situation when his father falls ill, and Bair must go to the town to trade his pelts for food for the family. After a disagreement with a wealthy British trader over the price of his treasured silver fox fur, the hunter is forced to flee into the mountains where he meets up with a group of Red Partisans. After a visually confusing fighting scene with quick shots and unidentifiable participants, the hunter is captured by the British and taken back to the city. Unable to communicate with the British officers, they order Bair to be executed.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

At this point the narrative splits and we follow the actions of the officers and the lengthy execution of our protagonist. The officers soon discover that Bair is a descendant of Genghis Khan (by an amulet that Bair chance acquired) and attempt to stop the execution. After the discovery of Bair's ancestry, the British take our protagonist and attempt to set his up as a prince in order to justify their own control and power. After experiencing several awkward moments and being put on display, Bair becomes enraged and destroys the British headquarters. He then flees the town. The climax, his fight, has quick editing and flashes the words "down," "bandits," "thieves" and "robbers" with an image of our protagonist screaming in rebellion. Pudovkin juxtaposes the dramatic and quickly edited scene with a subsequent attack on the Mongolian steppe. The protagonist is on horseback wielding a sword and followed by a great horde of warriors, evoking images of Genghis Khan. The dust and debris of the steppe follows this attack, forming the image of a storm sweeping over the land and attacking the British.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

The scenes on the steppe are very significant to the mood of the film. When all is well in the film, the steppe echoes this seemingly peaceful feeling. During the climax, the steppe becomes violent and windy, much like the horde of warriors. These natural shots set the mood for the narrative and reflect the emotions of the protagonist. Pudovkin implements fade-ins and outs. This is one of the earliest films where this cinematic technique has been implemented in a productive way, pertaining to the narrative by signaling a time lapse or location change.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

This film is very unique for its time. It is one of the first Russian films with non-Russian characters (all of the Mongolian cast are real Mongolians). It also focuses on political themes that do not glorify Soviets. Many critics at the time of release saw this film as non-Soviet and non-political because it neither deals with Russia nor serves a direct purpose for a propaganda film. Pudovkin's critics were ruthless and alleged that moving away from Soviet themes was going to lead a film crisis. Where films would no longer confront and convey the complex problems of Soviet society. Many also alleged that Pudovkin's endeavor was unattainable and uninteresting for audiences, who just could not grasp the meaning behind the film. There was no purpose for Storm over Asia to serve in the propaganda films of the time. This detachment from the Soviet themes was refreshing for me, so I would infer that it would also be for Russians at the time.
IMDB Reviewer
The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

Genghis Khan inspires big cinema. In the fifties there was the infamous Howard Hughes production that combined John Wayne in dubious make-up and CinemaScope to little success. The Conqueror, as the film was known, famously flopped and is now better known nowadays for the cancer controversy which surrounds it (filming having taken place downwind from a nuclear test site), but that never prevented it from being truly epic. Ten years later and Omar Sharif was portraying the Mongol emperor for the more obviously titled Genghis Khan. Backed up by an all-star cast that encompassed everyone from Telly Savalas to Eli Wallach and filmed entirely in Yugoslavia, this version once more did full justice to the phrase epic. Much more recently we’ve also seen Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol, at the time of its production the most expensive Russian film ever made. That claim has since been snatched away by Nikita Mikhalkov’s Burnt By the Sun 2, but again the epic-ness of it all is not to be denied. When it comes to Genghis, cinema goes large.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

Much the same would appear to be true for his descendants, at least if The Heir to Genghis Khan is anything to go by. Better known in the UK under the title of Storm Over Asia, this is Vsevolod Pudovkin’s classic piece of Soviet silent cinema that deftly combines action, propaganda, ethnographic documentary and stunning visual technique. The eponymous heir is a fur trader who, throughout the picture, finds himself up against the occupying British forces. The corrupt traders wish to exploit him, the army wants to kill him and, once they’ve got their hands on him, the top politicians try to use him as a tool for their own purposes: a puppet dictator with which to exert their control and influence. Of course, he resists all of them which also positions him as the perfect metaphor. Here is the revolutionary Russian versus the decadent, capitalist West.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

So as not to upset British sensibilities, The Heir to Genghis Khan had its intertitles altered for overseas audiences. The villains were no longer cartoon-ish Brits but instead white Russians, a situation which was also far closer to the truth. Dubious politics aside, Pudovkin’s feature nonetheless makes for remarkable cinema. The propagandist elements are swamped by the technique to the point where their simplicity and lack of authenticity barely even registers. Our attention is constantly swerved towards the more striking elements, whether it be the hyperkinetic editing rhythms, the location shooting or the non-fiction aspects which occasionally intrude. It is here where The Heir to Genghis Khan makes its mark as great cinema.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

In terms of style alone the results are often breathtaking. Pudovkin’s montage almost predicts the fidgety nature of today’s post-MTV action movies such is its rapid fire approach. He would remove frames from a particular sequence to give it a more staccato feel; the method nowadays resembles stop motion but the intention at the time was to find the same visual sting as a close-up, something with which to make the audience pay that little bit more attention. In combination with the snatches of classical music which make up the score (interwoven with newly composed passages and examples of authentic Mongolian folk music) it undoubtedly succeeds. The action set pieces - particularly the “a white man’s blood has been shed” scene - are full of tremendous energy.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

The location photography is just as important. The Heir to Genghis Khan was captured on the harsh plains and hillsides of the Soviet’s outskirts. Filming in such a landscape - and among actual Mongolians - led Pudovkin to pursue an added documentary-like dimension. Amidst the action and the propaganda we also find more straightforward ethnographic scenes of Mongolian culture, its rituals and its traditions. Non-professional actors were employed as too where their habitats. Moreover, they were accorded the utmost respect making their scenes stand out against the more caricatured portrayal of the various evil, corrupt, spoilt, despicable Brits. Such context may be a little obvious, but the documentary elements shine through and it’s fascinating to see such images almost 85 years later.

The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

The mixture of action-adventure, propaganda and such ethnography met with criticism upon The Heir to Genghis Khan’s original release. Pudovkin was accused to doing too much and as such creating a film whose tone veered wildly from scene to scene. Such complaints are understandable but they ignore just how remarkable many of the component parts are. When faced with a film this dazzling it doesn’t necessarily matter how well they fit together. The end result consistently amazes and astounds and that’s a rarity in itself. Such qualities should never be underestimated.
The Digital Fix
The Heir to Genghis Khan / Storm over Asia (1928) [2012] [Re-UP]

Special Features:
Disc 1 contains the film, plus numerous scene-specific annotations, video clips and documents (in Russian and in English). These can be viewed on screen, contextualising the film and enhancing the viewer’s understanding (Hyperkino format).
Disc 2 contains the standard film in the best available print, with optional subtitles.

All Credits goes to Original uploader.

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DVD Collection!

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BB3C10475159F425C32F63EDE373CC04 *Genghan.D2.part5.rar
EEC164B54931ECD5CE0CFFC17ED26A8D *Genghan.D2.part6.rar
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