Nikolay Nikolaevich Golovchenko,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Altai State Pedagogical University, Barnaul, Russia, e-mаil: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“Tomiris”: Searching for Identity
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-5-19
The article presents the analysis results for the film “Tomiris” by Akan Satayev, 2019. The film is devoted to Tomiris, the legendary “empress of Massagetae”, who won the Persian tsar Cyrus II the Great in 530 B.C. The actuality of appealing to the this range of problems is specified with the brand character of different archaeological monuments belonging to Scythian time archaeological that can be some modern states, including Russia and Kazakhstan. The authenticity of the costume reconstructions used in the film is ascertained. The comparison of the copied images from the film with the original findings is conducted. There is a historical narration within the scope of a costume drama and modern cliches about the ancient world and problems unusual for to the Early Iron Age in the film. These historical cliches are the images of all male characters in high conic headdresses, the exaggerated amount of clothes complex in costumes of main characters. The modern stereotypes are in concepts of wildness and barbarism, archaism and progress, feminism and heroism, steppe unity and Pan-Turkism that are presented in the film. As a result of the made research the author concludes that the clothes complex from all the Scythian world of different periods and regions is on the screen not by chance. In reconstructions we see the work of serious specialists and the conceptual framework soundly chosen, but changed deliberately. The slogan “The empress born to glorify the steppe” is intended to validate the identity of Tomiris as desired by the authors of the film.
Publishing: 28/10/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 22/06/2022
How to cite: Golovchenko N.N. “Tomiris”: Searching for Identity / Historical Courier, 2022, No. 5 (25), pp. 222–230. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-5-19.pdf]
Links: Issue 5 2022
Keywords: Kazakhstan cinematography; Early Iron Age; clothes complex; Tomiris; reconstruction