the legend of tomiris

Your Next Viewing: Well Go USA’s THE LEGEND OF TOMIRIS

People often look to the silver screen for female role models, wanting a strong female in both the physical and emotional sense, but they can forget to look for that role model in real life. Well Go USA’s latest release, The Legend of Tomiris, brings a real life strong female’s story to our home screens. I have to admit that I am not at all familiar with Tomiris nor her nomadic people, but when I read the synopsis of the film, I knew I had to see this one: Starring Kazakhstan standouts Almira Tursyn (as Tomiris), Adil Akhmetov (as Argun), and Aizhan Lighg (as Sardana)––who perform all of their own action-packed stunts––THE LEGEND OF TOMIRIS tells the real life story of the great queen who, along with her female warriors, united divided nomadic tribes to create a powerful nation capable of repelling the likes of Persia. According to historical accounts, Tomiris […]

NYAFF XIX Review: THE LEGEND OF TOMIRIS, A Tale As Epic As Its Origins

Lee B. Golden III

As Well Go USA presses on with its usual venture into tastemaker territory, their recent acquisition of Kazakh filmmaker Akan Satayev’s twelfth feature fim, The Legend Of Tomiris, is set to grant an audience for this year’s virtual installer of the nineteenth New York Asian Film Festival. The film opened in Kazakhstan late last year, and while it reportedly drew a bit of controversy in the process among historians with respect to certain language aspects, that’s not to say the film doesn’t do a fine job of carrying its weight from start to finish. Satayev’s grand-scale Herodotian epic spans a good two-and-a-half hours for its duration, as it immerses you in a VO-narrated flashback to a time when the nomadic Saka tribes ruled the steppe. Our story focuses on the title character of Tomiris, raised from birth within the Massagetae, led by tribal chief Spargap (Murat Bisenbin), raised, loved and […]

THE LEGEND OF TOMIRIS: Akan Satayev’s Epic Historical War Drama Gets A U.S. Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Hard to believe that’s it’s been about three years since Akan Satayev’s female-fronted historical war drama, The Legend Of Tomiris, underwent post production, isn’t it? Indeed, that was definitely the case ahead of its local release in Kazakhstan late last year, and with acquisitions thereafter. At any rate, the film is finally making headway following its acquisition by Well Go USA in June, with an official U.S. trailer now online ahead of its September 29 release on Digital, Blu-Ray and DVD. Based on historical heroine Queen Tomiris of Massagetae and her cadre of female warriors (the real-life 6th century BCE Amazonians who inspired the mythical tales), The Legend of Tomiris recounts the tale of the nomadic ruler who overcame great personal tragedy to repel the powerful Persian empire and unite the Great Steppe. The Legend Of Tomiris stars actresses Almira Tursyn and Aizhan Lighg, and actor Adil Akhmetov.