Wednesday, December 28, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Bunkhouse
Chronicle
Craig Rullman
Columnist
The Eagle Huntress
If you are a parent — par-
ticularly a father — and you
have a daughter, or if you
like great movie scenery, or
even if you are merely a cur-
mudgeon with gender axes
to grind, here’s a fun holiday
season idea: Go see “The
Eagle Huntress” at Sisters
Movie House.
Without ruining the narra-
tive, here’s the basic break-
down of a wonderfully true
story: A 13-year-old Kazakh
girl in Mongolia, Aisholpan,
wants to continue 12 gen-
erations of her family leg-
acy by becoming an eagle
hunter. Her father, Nurgaiv,
who makes his living driv-
ing herds of goats and cattle
across the frigid Mongolian
Steppe, is a two-time win-
ner of the prestigious Golden
Eagle Festival near the out-
back village of Olgii, where
eagle hunters gather annually
to be judged in their mastery
of hunting game with eagles.
Here’s the rub: in the
deeply traditional and con-
servative Kazakh culture
—and Aisholpan is Muslim
— females just don’t hunt
with eagles.
And so the stage is set
for Aisholpan to capture and
raise her own eagle, and for
Nurgaiv to train her in the
necessary skills and arts to
compete against the men in
a centuries-old cultural tra-
dition. Together, they must
overcome their own doubts,
and the considerable barriers
of a culture trapped some-
where between Genghis
Khan, Mohamed, crank-
started Soviet cargo trucks,
and yurts with solar panels.
There is a marvelous
series of interviews with
elder Kazakh eagle hunters,
bedecked in traditional garb,
looking every bit the wind-
blasted, frostbitten, slightly
mystical and contemplative
keepers of ancient tradition.
They are asked about the
prospect of a female, particu-
larly a young female, learn-
ing to hunt with an eagle and
are unanimous in their rejec-
tion of the notion. Some of
the elders are more vehement
than others, some think it is
a bad joke, and at least one
insists that a woman’s job
is to keep the ger warm and
make curd.
The film does not, thank-
fully, openly editorialize
on their positions. Instead,
the audience is allowed to
form its own opinion, and to
develop allegiances based on
Aisholpan’s intense desire to
compete in this exclusively
male activity. And the film
does a fine, understated job
of revealing her father’s
unflagging belief in her fit-
ness, and his own commit-
ment to prepare her for the
rigors of eagle hunting.
One of the finer moments
Best Wishes for a Wonderful
Holiday and a Very
Happy New Year.
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of the film records Nurgaiv
speaking with his own
elderly father — himself an
eagle hunter — in the thin,
cold light outside of the fam-
ily ger in the Altai moun-
tains. Nurgaiv asks the old
man if he will give his bless-
ing to Aisholpan’s desires,
the old man consents, and
the three of them then pray
together.
The blessing sequence
is deeply moving on many
levels. As father to a young
woman who is studying and
striving to make her mark
in the world of agricultural
science — a sexist universe
if there ever was one — it
is a reminder of how much
pride we have in our daugh-
ters, how much hope for
their triumphs in a competi-
tive world, and how critical
the role we must play in pre-
paring our young women to
compete with and to beat the
men at our own games.
One of the finer elements
of the film is that nothing
is given to Aisholpan. She
earns the respect she so ulti-
mately deserves. Her father is
a fantastic teacher and guide,
but her success is the result
of her own drive, determina-
tion, and admirable grit.
It has been suggested
that Aisholpan’s strength
is derived from the role she
assumed after her brother
joined the Mongolian Army.
With her brother’s absence,
Aisholpan took over his
laborious and traditionally
male chores. However tem-
pered, her success is made
sweeter by her incredible
drive, though even in victory
not everyone is convinced
of her fitness to be called an
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9
PHOTO PROVIDED
“The Eagle Huntress” offers stunning photography.
eagle hunter.
It is, I suppose, a Kazakh
version of the glass ceiling.
In the film, Nurgaiv handles
Aisholpan’s detractors by
refusing to feed their nega-
tivity, by voicing his quiet
confidence in her abilities,
and by continuing to encour-
age his daughter’s mindset so
that she begins to see herself
as a qualified equal.
From the beginning,
Nurgaiv is a rock of father-
hood, lowering Aisholpan by
rope over a sheer cliff face
into an eagle’s nest, teach-
ing her to train the eagle
to hunt and to be recalled,
and ultimately riding by her
side into the rugged Altai
mountains for a final test,
over rivers frozen solid and
through deep, rocky snow-
banks, to hunt foxes with her
eagle, and to finally silence
the critics and rigid cultural
gatekeepers.
Aisholpan is not the first
modern Kazakh female eagle
huntress. That title belongs
to Makpal Abdrazakova —
now a successful lawyer
— and Stanford researcher
Adrienne Mayor reports evi-
dence of female eagle hunt-
ers from 10th-century Persia.
But Aisholpan’s story, well-
told, is a reminder to all of
us that we are never more
stupid or cruel to each other
as when we insist on tired
assumptions and creaky
traditions, or enforce them
without honest examination.
And for modern American
fathers of young women,
Nurgaiv’s refusal to bow to
criticism or cemented tradi-
tion, and to see his daugh-
ter as the natural and equal
inheritor of 12 generations
of knowledge, serves as a
poignant and beautifully ren-
dered example of how we
might best serve our daugh-
ters — as they develop their
considerable passions, and
strike out into the world in
pursuit of success.
NEW YEAR’S
EVE PARTY!
The Bobby Lindstrom Band
plays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.
It’s free, so come join us and
ring in the new year!
541-549-RIBS
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Sisters