Official Selection - Out of Competition 2016 / The Eagle Huntress / USA 2016
Thirteen-year-old Aisholpan has just one wish – to become an eagle huntress, thereby continuing the family tradition. In order to fulfill her dream she must overcome one remaining fundamental obstacle: falconry is usually the purview of men. Tinged with a touch of fairy tale, this Sundance audience favorite is set in the breathtaking mountains of Mongolia and is all the more unbelievable for being a true story.
Thirteen-year-old Aisholpan has just one wish – to train as an eagle huntress, thereby continuing the family tradition and following in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. To fulfil her dream she has to overcome one remaining fundamental obstacle: Falconry has usually been domain of men, and the patriarchs are filled with misgivings at the thought that the girl might become one of them. But Aisholpan isn’t about to give up… British documentarist Otto Bell set out for Mongolia’s Altai Mountains after seeing a photograph on the internet in 2014 and, from that moment, he and his camera are the witnesses to a fairy-tale story which is all the more magical for the fact that it actually happened. With the young girl’s father and a hundred other spectators, we catch our breath the moment Aisholpan’s eagle flies up for the first time to demonstrate its skill to everyone gathered at the traditional Golden Eagle Festival. It is then that we believe wholeheartedly that even the most courageous of dreams can become a reality. The Eagle Huntress was an audience hit at this year’s Sundance.
Anna Kořínek
87 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Otto Bell
/ Dir. of Photography Simon Niblett
/ Editor Pierre Takal
/ Producer Stacey Reiss, Sharon Chang, Otto Bell
/ Production Stacey Reiss Productions, Kissaki Films, 19340 Productions
/ Sales Celluloid Dreams, Sony Pictures Classics
/ Contact Pascale Ramonda
www: www.theeaglehuntress.com
Otto Bell is a British film director and creative director based in New York. He studied at Oxford University and expanded his education with a year’s post-graduate study in management as part of the prestigious WPP Fellowship Scheme. He directed more than fifteen documentary films for such brands as IBM and Philips, which took him to exotic locations – Uganda, Japan, Egypt and Vietnam. During his ten years in the film industry he has created and produced acclaimed world-affairs television programmes, including “Horizons” for BBC World News and “Shunya” for India’s Times Now.
Celluloid Dreams
2, rue Turgot, 75009, Paris
France
Phone: +33 149 700 370
E-mail: [email protected]
Pascale Ramonda
91 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020, Paris
France
Phone: +33 662 013 241
E-mail: [email protected]
Sony Pictures Classics
25 Madison Ave FL 19, 10010-8601, New York
United States of America
E-mail: [email protected]
Otto Bell
Film Director
Gaëtan Trigot
Sales Agent
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