Talk:Tomiris (movie)

This is a summary taken from a combination of watching the movie and, for the quoted parts, a Russian-language source (http://senyafedya.ru/film-tomiris-2019/).

This is about the steppe tribes in the 6th century B.C. (up to about 530 B.C.).   At the beginning of the movie, Spargal, the king of the Massagetae, a Saki tribe, is at his wife's side as she dies in child-birth.  The child is the girl Tomiris.  Spargal rigorously trains her in the arts of the warrior (archery, swordmanship, wrestling, horse-back riding), so she will be a warrior.  Intrigue among leaders of the nomadic tribes leads to a violent suprise attack on Spargal, leaving him and most of his company dead.  Tomiris, present at the massacre, is saved, taken away (i.e., saved) screaming while she sees her father being assinated. Time and again, she is witness to attacks on people she is with.  Finally, becomes a ruler of her people, confronting and eliminating the man who had killed her father.

" In the end, the unconquered Tomiris managed to become an autocratic ruler. She revives the fighting traditions of her ancestors and at the same time introduces innovations into the equipment of her troops. All this allowed the massagets to win battles with their neighbors and strengthen their positions.

"The fame of beauty, intelligence and art in military strategy Tomiris reached the Persian king Cyrus II the Great, who wanted to subjugate the nomadic tribes in the northern part of Central Asia." Thruough trickery, Cyrus has Tomiris's husband killed [Herodotus gives the account of Cyrus leaving an essentially abandoned camp with wine stores as a trap to get the Massegetae soldiers drunk and thus easy prey.] The old emperor "sends his people to Tomiris to invite the queen to become his wife." Upon Tomirirs's rejection and demand that Cyrus leave the steppes [which, according to greek sources, he had invaded to set up a sort of buffer zone], Cyrus declares all-out war. Tomiris rallies her massive forces against the huge army of the Persian empire. She explains her battlefield strategy. Meanwhile, Cyrus has encamped on the plains as well, with his HQ behind his lines. A battle ensues. Cyrus is killed, and his head brought to the triumphant Tomiris.

The movie is told in the frame-work of Al Farabi telling the history, though the movie-maker says his primary source was Herodotus. This was cause for criticism, which the director, Akan Satayev, acknowledged without bowing to it (https://informburo.kz/stati/eto-feministicheskiy-film-chto-kinokritiki-dumayut-o-kartine-akana-sataeva-tomiris.html). There are a lot of free interpretation and necessary augmentation of the historical record. (See https://ru.sputniknews.kz/Question/20190807/11204261/Chto-izvestno-o-glavnoy-geroine-filma-Tomiris-rezhissera-Akana-Sataeva.html.)

The important role of Steppe women, especially but not only as warriors, is stressed through-out the movie.

There was some speculation that this Hollywood-style, (for Kazakhstan) high-budget film, what with its strong female protagonist, was a "preparation" for the Kazakhstan' president's handing over the rule of his country to his daughter, though the work on the film began before Nazarbayev's daughter would have been in position to become presdient, and in fact, she did not become president upon her father's resignation. The movie-maker denied any political motives (http://senyafedya.ru/film-tomiris-2019/).