Production Studios: Kyrgyz Film in association with Aitysh Film

Country: Krygyzstan

Genre: Historical, epic drama

Film Language: Kyrgyz/Russian (with English subtitles)

Running time: 136 minutes

Budget: $1,500,000

National Premiere: 31 August 2014

 

Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains is the largest budget film that Kyrgyzstan has produced.

 

The film’s shooting took place over seven months over the course of two years and involved more than 10,000 people!

 

As the majority of the filming took place in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the cast and crew experienced many weather problems.  Filming was delayed on many occasions and a number of yurts were destroyed by the rain.

 

With such a large number of people being involved, there were inevitably cases of cast and crew falling ill and a number of injuries.  The director of the film, Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, was at one point hit in the chest by an arrow.  However, shooting continued.

 

The horse, Proton, which in the film jumps off a 14 meter cliff, surfaced on the opposite side of the river without a scratch.

 

The tigress, Shakira, lives in a private zoo in Moscow.  She loves horse meat and during the filming she had to be kept within a two kilometer perimeter from the horses to prevent her from scenting them and triggering an attack.

 

The photos of Kurmanjan Datka have been preserved due to the efforts of a young officer of the Russian army, Mannerheim, who, during an expedition to Central Asia, photographed many indigenous people and their way of life.  He later became the Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland.