Beifuss: 'The Eagle Huntress' - A Mini-Review

John Beifuss
Bird is the word in "The Eagle Huntress."

 "The Eagle Huntress" (G, 87 min.) ***   A “very brave and courageous” 13-year-old spreads her wings and causes a flap among the “conservative voices in the eagle-hunting community” in director Otto Bell’s feel-good documentary about a Kazakh girl named Aisholpan Nurgaiv who breaks with centuries of tradition to become perhaps the first female in Mongolia to train and hunt with a golden eagle. If the girl-empowerment message is unsubtle (“You can do anything,” Sia sings during the closing credits), the chronology dubious and the occasionally staged action sometimes manipulative (preparation for an “eagle competition” imposes trite deadline suspense onto an otherwise highly unfamiliar narrative), the film also is quite moving, especially as the high-spirited Aisholpan develops her remarkable bond with her 15-pound bird (stolen as an eaglet from a nest, in a scene that may disturb animal lovers who otherwise cheer the movie's respect-for-nature vibe). The beauty of the frozen mountains and steppes and the stunning images of father and daughter (eagle in tow) riding off in search of foxes (a hunt that can last for weeks) are reminders that this planet sustains a “diversity” of “lifestyles” that is much broader than what most people associate with such terms — a diversity that is all but unknowable except through stories such as this one. The narrator is Daisy Ridley, who brought Aisholpan-worthy pluck to the George Lucas universe in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

"The Eagle Huntress" is at the Malco Studio on the Square.