Nikita Azhakov's newest film “Tygyn Darkhan” is a cinematic retelling of the story of the eponymous legendary leader from what is now Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The movie took two years to complete and was shot in nine districts of the republic. It won three awards at the Veche Historical Films Festival.
Trying to summarize the plot of “Tygyn Darkhan” is for reasons explained in detail below, an almost impossible task. It is a movie about Tygyn Darkhan (Nyurgun Bechigez), the great unifier of the people that now constitute the Republic of Sakha who has to fight against enemies in an effort to unify the numerous tribes in the land. There is more than that, but sadly, it is made incomprehensible.Â
Watching this movie, one cannot but feel that it is as if the director and the entire crew just tried to emulate an epic like “The Lord of the Rings”. Anything except for the brilliant and engaging story, that is. There is epic stuff going on on the screen, but the viewer cannot relate to it because half of the time they are trying to understand what is going on, what is the underlying story and how all of the tens of characters fit in it. One of the reasons for this failure of of the film to engage the audience is Nikita Arzhakov's choice to direct every scene as if it is an introduction or some kind of a set up to something which the viewer is expecting will happen just around the corner. But after that, unsurprisingly, is just another pointless introduction-looking scene, oftentimes filled with confusing dialogue that may be understandable only for the well-versed with the legendary uniter's life story and the traditional culture of the region. But I have the suspicion that even they will find themselves bored by the repetitiveness and lack of imagination in this two-and-a-half hour epic.
The narrative problems of the film are further amplified by the frankly infuriating editing and pointlessly stylish camerawork. Though the latter has no direct effect on the incomprehensibility of the work and the inability for the viewer to as little as care for what is happening with the main characters, the former does. If anything, it is precisely the editing that makes the movie almost impossible to follow. There are way too many cuts that make no sense and instead of propelling the story forward or helping the viewer make sense of the epic and momentous choices made on screen, it makes him scratch his head wondering what the hell is going on. Take for an example a simple scene with Tygyn Darkhan and his men rowing on a canoe. They are first shown doing that in a way that makes them seem as if they are not moving forward, something for which we should blame the always at motion camera, then we see a bunch of feet walking in what seems like a cave, then the men are near a pond with a lot of foliage, and in the end they are finally at what seems like a smith's village. Something that should've been simple is for no absolute reason made unnecessarily difficult. It goes without saying that scenes even remotely more complex than that is made even more perplexing by the strange editing.Â
While the film lacks in direction, plot, and editing, it more than makes up for them with set designs and costumes. Every single aspect of them, from the architecture of the buildings to the smallest detail on the earrings and clothing ornaments seems to be handmade with the utmost care. This creates an overwhelming sense of authenticity that can do nothing except leave the audience in awe. That is, until a cheap-looking color correction effect gets plopped on top of the lovingly made fur hats and expertly crafted armors.Â
As beautiful and awe-inspiring the sets and costumes of “Tygyn Darkhan” might be, the epic is a film first and foremost and as one it fails in some of the most fundamental blocks that make a movie an engaging and enjoyable piece of art.
