A Kazakhstani movie based on Herodotus’ narrative about Tomyris and the death of Cyrus the Great -its national and political implications and a Persianate point of view on it
“Tomiris is a 2019 Kazakhstani feature film directed by Akan Sataev, which tells the story of the queen of the Massagetae, Tomyris, and the Persian king, Cyrus the Great. The film co-stars Almira Tursyn, Aizhan Lighg, and Ghassan Massoud.
The film was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan. The idea to create a film about Tomyris was brought by Aliya Nazarbayeva, the youngest daughter of the first president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. She was later employed as a general producer of the film.
The premiere of the film took place in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. The film received mixed reviews from critics and, as of July 2020, grossed $1.3 million against a production budget of $6.5 million.
Erkebulan Dayirov – Kharasp
The film was ordered by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan. The idea of a film about Tomyris was brought to creation by Aliya Nazarbayeva, the daughter of the first president of Kazakhstan.[8] Filming began in December 2017, and scenes were shot in different parts of Kazakhstan. The Massagetae heroes speak the ancient Turkic language, while the Persian heroes speak new Persian in the film, despite the fact that modern historians consider the Massagetae to have been a nomadic Iranian people.[9][10] The film's budget was 6,5 million USD.[7]
The plot of the film is built on the story of Herodotus, who called his version one of the many stories about the death of Cyrus the Great.[11] The filmmakers took into account many features of the culture and life of the Massagetae, in particular, their pointed hats and tribal meetings, at which the most important issues were resolved. However, the language spoken by the Saka nomads, which is an artificially created proto-Turkic language, is controversial. The clothes worn by the Massagetae in the film are also disputable, as they are probably too heavy for the Central Asian region. The vicinity of the Amu Darya River has a very hot climate, so the summer clothes were lighter and of a different style.[11]
Almira Tursyn, a psychologist, was chosen from 15 thousand people to play the role of Tomyris. She took professional lessons of horseriding and archery and learned to use swords and knives.[12]
Release and critical response[edit]
The film was theatrically released in Kazakhstan on October 1, 2019. The distribution rights of the film were sold to Blue Swan for Italy, SND Films for France, Art Mood for Spain, AT Entertainment for Japan, Gulf Film for the Middle East, Challan for South Korea, Paradise/MGN for CIS, Shaw for Singapore, Program 4 Media for Romania, Siyah Bayez Movies for Turkey, and Well Go USA for the United States.[13][14] Distribution in the United States and Canada was picked up by Amazon Prime Video.[15]
The film received mixed reviews, largely because Herodotus's version of events is not generally accepted by historians and researchers,[16] and unlike in the film, Massagetae are Scythian people speaking an Iranian language, while in the movie all characters are represented by modern Kazakh (featuring Mongolian physiognomy and speaking a Turkic language). Criticism came from both the Kazakh and Iranian public mainly for considering the film as a feminist approach to the history of both Muslim countries. The Iranian public also criticized the film for using Herodotus's description of King Cyrus's death.[16]
Some observers believe that the film was aimed to make Dariga Nazarbayeva's potential presidential bid in the future, the daughter of Kazakhstan's former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, more acceptable among ordinary Kazakhstanis.[17]
The film won the Nouveau Genre Great Prize at France's 2020 L'Étrange Festival.[18]
As of July 2020, it had grossed $1.3 million against a production budget of $6.5 million.[19]
From the article of Wikipedia on the film Tomiris ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomiris_(film) )”
Ghassan Massoud as Cyrus the Great in the film Tomiris
“The Legend of Tomiris Rewrites History and Makes It More Kazakh
By Javeed Ahwar - November 15, 2020
The Legend of Tomiris (2019) is a lame adaption of Herodotus’s account of Cyrus the Great’s encounter with a Steppe warrior Tomiris (See Rollinger 2012). There is no doubt that the film is a not a historically accurate adaptation, nor the intention of makers, I believe, have been making something based on historical facts. Tomiris (the film) is a prime example how arts become a tool for nationalist politics in today’s time. Regarding the ethnic origin of Scythians, there is almost a consensus among Turkologists and scholars of Central Asian studies about their Iranian ancestry. Distinguished Turkologist Svat Saucek defines Scythians as nomadic Iranians—the natives of Central Asian Steppes, who were driven out from this region by Kipchak Turks between the fourth and sixth centuries (2000, xii, 28). Furthermore, historian A.I. Melyukova writes, “From the end of the 7th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. the Central- Eurasian steppes were inhabited by two large groups of kin Iranian-speaking tribes—the Scythians and Sarmatians” (2008, 97). Based on the existing scholarship, Massagetae, a sub-division of Scythians which Tomiris belonged to, were not a Turkic group, quite on the contrary, they were in war with the latter until they were fully replaced by them in the Steppes. The question rises if a moviemaker can go that far in manipulating historical facts and is it then fair to call it a historical drama. I leave it for the readers to decide.
Coming to the story of film, it is narrated by Al-Farabi, a universalist middle ages scholar of Iranian origin, who is introduced as “Al-Turki” and given a Kazakh phenotype in the film. Al-Farabi is shown sitting in a traditional office-like atmosphere in Damascus (Syria) while writing the story of Tomiris for the Arab world. The story starts with the birth of Tomiris and the maternal death of her mother, queen to the Massagetae tribe’s chief Spargap. Being the first child to her father, she gets treated as a prince and trained in hunting, sword fighting, archery and politics by her father. Spargap gets killed by his rival tribe leaders Kurtun and Kavaz, shown as loyal puppets to the neighboring Iranian Khwarazmians. Tomiris survives several assassination attempts and seeks asylum at Savromat tribe and marries with Argun, the prince of Saprap tribe. After avenging her father and brothers’ bloods, she unites the Steppe tribes in war against Khwarazmians, part of the Persian King’s domain. The interval scene begins with Tomiris receiving an invitation from Cyrus. Argun and his son Spargap decides to visit Babylon the quarter of Cyrus the Great. The conversation does not go well between the two. After rejecting Cyrus’s proposal to join Persia in their conquest of the Egypt, persuaded by his subject Gubar, Cyrus kills the entire delegates. Gubar, the messenger of Cyrus, brings their death bodies to Tomiris also proposing her to marry the king of kings. Tomiris, now a widow, not only rejects the marriage proposal of the Shahenshah, but also avenges the death of her son and husband killing the entire Persian delegates and declaring a war with Persia. Cyrus the Great putting his plan of conquering the Egypt on halt, wages a war with the Steppe tribes and gets killed at the hand of an ordinary warrior of Tomiris.
Why Tomiris? Aliya Nazarbayeva—daughter of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the ex-president of Kazakhstan and writer-actor Timur Zhaksylykov have pinned down the story to cater to Kazakh youth who seek glory in the past. Tomiris (2019) not only makes a 700 B.C. historical figure speak Kazakh, it is supported by poor cast playing Persians and Khwarazmian. Neither the Kazakh nor the Persian dialogues are intelligible to present Kazakh and Persian speakers. Was it a deliberate move? It might be the case but saying “Bezugarid”— instead of “Bezugarid in the film” tells us the failure of writers and makers to integrate a Persian writer in the project and cast Persian speaking characters.
On the technical aspect of the film, starting with the cinematography, it is too monotonous to impress. It does not live up to the prestige of Tomiris and Cyrus the Great. In particular emperor Cyrus is portrayed as an understaffed king and with not much aura around him. Produced on a budget of USD 6.5 million, it is justifiable. Furthermore, Babylon looks not different from the depiction of Arabian lands in Hollywood movies. The tents and deserts where Tomiris and her tribe resides are shown in an egalitarian way all looking alike. The life conditions are shown very hard. I argue that Tomiris the film is an attempt by Kazakh artists to rewrite history in a problematic way. The film could be made about heroic deeds of nomadic tribes without making it ethnically Kazakh or Turk. Being a multi-ethnic and language country, Kazakhstan can claim heir to Scythians on territorial but not on an ethnolinguistic ground. What makes this film problematic is the makers attempt to give Scythians the Kazakh language, the Mongoloid facial features and calling Tomiris as “türk tarihinin ilk kadın hükümdarı”—the first female ruler in Turkish history.
The film is not supported by good casting including the leading character Tomiris played by Almyra Tursyn. Her performances in entirety and particularly in the emotional scenes fails to create an impact. A Syrian actor Hassan Massoud fails to shine as the Cyrus the Great in the film. Leading characters like Tomiris, Argun, Spargap and Sardana remain superficial in their approach towards their characters. My best performed scene from this film is the labor scene when Spargap’s wife gives birth to Tomiris. She excels in that scene, the rest looks like a Turkish Soep opera with blunt expressions seen throughout. Considering this region’s multiethnic and multilinguistic and religious feature, I would like to see movies which moves beyond the chauvinistic, black and white, and fictitious treatment of history. Such a movie might please a historically uninformed Kazakh, but it definitely is not for a well-educated Kazakh or Central Asian.
Soucek, Svat. 2000. A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press.
Melyukova, A. I. 2008. “The Scythians and Sarmatians.” In The Cambridge History of EarlyInner Asia, edited by Denis Sinor, 97-118. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press.
Rollinger, Robert. 2012. “Cyrus According to Herodotus” Encyclopedia Iranica, Vol. XII, Fasc. 3, pp. 260-262; available online at https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/herodotus-iv (accessed online at November 10 2020).
I am a persianate coming from Afghanistan. I completed my undergraduate studies at Kabul University in Law and Political Science in 2009. I obtained my first master degree from the OSCE Academy in Bishkek in Politics and Security in Central Asia in 2010. I obtained my second master degree [Advanced LLM in European and International Human Rights Law] from Leiden University/Netherlands in 2015. In 2018, I was able to acquire my third master degree/research master in Cultural Anthropology from Utrecht University in Netherlands in 2018. Since 2019, I am doing my PhD in Eurasian Studies, an inter-university PhD program between Humboldt University in Berlin and Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan.”
Source: https://www.javeedahwar.blog/2020/11/the-legend-of-tomiris-rewrites-history.html
