Genghis Khan

***Genghis Khan*** is an Italian animated historic film that deals with the epic story of a great leader of the Mongol Empire. It was released in 2004 and distributed by Mondo TV.

## Synopsis

Yusegaj The Brave was the brother of the wolves of the steppe. Chief of a small, but renowned Mongol tribe, he had joined the leader of a pack of wolves with a blood pact, on the day the Mongol had saved him from certain death. As a result of this pact, the wolves of the steppe began protecting his son, Temujin, after his violent, tragic and brutal death.

Temujin has a brave heart, a perfect physique, and rides like the best of the Mongols. He can shoot an arrow and hit a target while galloping upright on his horse. And he is loved by the Supreme Sky, the great divinity of the his people, the Blue Mongols. Genghis Khan

One tragic day, when Yusegaj is treacherously killed by the Melkits, and Temujin is forced to flee, the wolves mysteriously save him. And they save him again whilst fleeing from Bortè's father's yurt village, Bortè being the Mongol girl he has just married. Borte's village is overwhelmed by the Melkits led by Targutaj. They are searching for Temujin in order to kill him and put an end to the line of Yesugaj. As a great insult, Bortè is tragically taken prisoner and forced to become Targutaj's wife.

On that day Temujin swears: "I will burn the steppe The one who killed Yesugaj must soon hear of his son Temujin!" He does not give in. He gathers his own tribe around him and others which see in him a strong and generous leader.

He asks Trogul Khan for help and, at the head of five hundred Mongols, defeats the Melkits and rescues Bortè who becomes the queen of the steppe at his side. That day, the victorious Temujin prostrates himself nine times, on his knees and on the ground, to thank the Eternal Blue Sky. He is convinced that Sky, the supreme divinity of the Mongol people, watches over him and has predestined him for great things.

When Temujin attacks, at the head of his hordes, he feels within himself the determination and ferocity of a wolf honing in on its prey, at the head of an invincible pack… Thus, defeating his enemies one after the other, in a few years, the hundreds upon hundreds of Mongol tribes which populate the steppes between the Caspian Sea and the Great Wall of China to the south-east, as far as the highest Himalaya mountains in the south-west, gather around Temujin. Finally, a shaman proclaims: "The Eternal Blue Sky orders that Temujin, and no other, is the Khan of the Mongols".

Mongol tribes from every part of the great steppes swear allegiance to him. He becomes a warrior leader, a lawmaker, and even an attentive father of a great people who live on horseback. Their mobility and frugal habits give them the resources to achieve a whole series of resounding victories.

Temujin then became Genghis Khan. Sensing that the time was right, he attacked the Chinese Empire, which he will later become Emperor of. The campaign against China is epic, but at the same time a triumph and a tragedy. In the Year of the Dog, 1214, when the Mongols reach Peking, there are already at least two million dead, a hundred cities sacked, towns and villages reduced to ashes and millions of people enslaved.

Genghis explains why China is in ruins at his feet; "Heaven has abandoned China because of its pride and excessive luxury. I hate luxury and practise moderation. I eat the same food and wear the same poor clothes as my modest herdsmen. I look at people as my children, I care about talented men as if they were my brothers. In military exercises I am always at the head and, in time of battle, I am never in the rear. In the space of seven years I have been able to carry out a great task and unite all the world in one immense Empire". This he wrote to the venerable Chin Ciang-Ciun, the philosopher and famous teacher of Tao.

Later other great cities fell into his hands, such as Bukhara and Samarkand, while his generals defeat the Prophet's army and reach as far as Volga and Crimea. Later when he is older, hunting with his favourite grandson, a sudden swerve causes him to fall from his horse. It does not seem to be anything serious, but his health deteriorates from then onwards.

Sensing the end, he has himself taken with his yurt to the walls of Karakorum, his capital, an enormous city made up of mud houses and yurts. There, "the bird of his spirit flew from the cage of his body" as Abul Ghazi, one of his historians, wrote.

It was dawn of the fifth day of the great month of autumn in the year of the Boar, 1227, 18 August in the Julian calendar. In accordance with his wishes, Genghis Khan was buried in an unknown cave in the great steppe. No-one has ever found out where. For a long time, the people of his tribe continued to believe that Genghis, the blue wolf, was still alive, riding across the steppes with his horde. Many swore that they had seen him.