Sergei Bodrov: Director, Mongol
Ruth Hessey chats to Sergei Bodrov the Russian director of the epic Mongol
A Russian Director examines the pitiless motion of the Mongol Hordes as they conquer what is now modern Russia
He has a Russian accent as thick as a mouthful of Piroshki, and a mild stutter, which you wouldn't expect in a man who makes films on the scale of old-school military manoeuvres.
But then Sergei Bodrov, whose last film Prisoner of the Mountains was a Foreign-Language Oscar nominee, is a man of both epic vision and exquisite sensitivity. With Mongol, Bodrov achieves a scope and majesty a Hollywood mogul would envy.
"Sometimes I felt I am a general," he admits on a staticky line from his ranch somewhere in Arizona.
"Sometimes I felt I would lose the battle." Not only did filming halt completely at one point, Bodrov's desire to shoot the life of Ghenghis Khan made him deeply unpopular from the start.
"In Russia we spent 250 years under Mongol rule, and we still blame all our problems on the Mongols. He was an evil monster in my school books, and perhaps that's why I became sceptical. I wanted to make a film about his childhood, because I did not believe that he was born a monster.
"Many people were very upsetI was making a film about the enemy," he continues. "So I was making the project as independent producer and pushing everybody. It was insane."
Displaying a Ghenghis-like tenacity, Bodrov persevered against the odds, with a massive 600-strong crew, and a cast of literally thousands of extras and horses, recreating the genesis of Genghis in 12th century Kazakhstan and Inner Mongolia.
"The only thing to compare with the scale of it was War and Peace [the eight-hour epic shot in 1967] which was made with the state support of the army," he points out.
Bodrov caused more controversy with a sequence that covers ten years of the Khan's life which have never been accounted for. "Some historians didn't like this idea," he says. "But it's a great challenge for the hero. Sitting there encrusted by time, in this cage, he can go mad, or he can achieve the opposite."
The film's thesis is that the genius of Genghis Khan was forged while in captivity. The extraordinary makeup used on Japanese indie idol Tadanobu Asano, who plays the conqueror, is an indelible image in a film packed with beauty and grandeur.
Bodrov has survived both the Soviet and post Soviet era, coming up through the ranks of Soviet filmmaking as a screenwriter when censorship was rife. "And it was very tough. You had to fight and sometimes you would lose." Now resident in the US, Bodrov gets plenty of offers from American studios. "Eight years ago I made Hollywood picture [The Quickie], which was not the best experience," he admits. "I like to think of myself as a non-professional director. "
Mongol is only part one of the life of the much-maligned and revered Khan. Bodrov has promised to deliver parts two and three