It's the 1920s in Central Asia. The Russian Empire is dead, the Red Army is marching on the territory and there are local Chieftains claiming themselves to be Sultans who are holding titles to be the solid authority over the land.
In a way they were already the authority of the land as the Czar of Russia just looked at them as vassal's who ruled on his behalf.
Well kind of.
Weird thing with the Czar of Russia as opposed to other monarchies of Europe in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that he was still technically the flat-out leader. So everyone by definition had to give him some respect even if they live so far out of his General scope that he might as well had been a foreign leader.
But it's all irrelevant now. Now Central Asia isn't really controlled by anyone.
There's this Sultan who I guess is trying to control the whole thing, but he's either captured by the Red Army or may be hired by the Red Army.
He's given a bodyguard so he can go to some City to do. Something.
The translation for the dialogues is very direct so it doesn't really mix up all that well in English and it goes by incredibly quickly. It was a little difficult to spot some of the details and figure out exactly what's happening. Still it's not like that's the point of the film. It's something of a western (Ostern)
movie, With Caravan going from one spot to the other while enduring the elements, enemy Raiders and whatever else happens to come along their way.
There's a little social commentary about the differences between the life of peasants and the ruling Elite (also slaves) and how all of that is changing with the advancing Red Army. But nobody really focuses on that for long and really it's only there to establish that the Sultan is kind of a jerk.
he only cares about two things, Tamga* and his daughter. The latter of which is a big reason for why the Raiders are chasing him to begin with. This one guy wants to become the new ruler of Central Asia but to do so he has to marry in with an already established royal family.
So if he takes the Sultan's daughter he can become a royal in his own right. It's a fairly common tactic amongst invading forces and other people who want to seize power.
There's also an odd secondary character. This mystical woman who has the ability to make premonitions about the future and is one of the sole reasons for the bandits lust for power. I guess he holds some form of affection for this girl and wants to Proclaim her not merely a ruler among Central Asia but the whole continent itself.
So really there's only four characters in this film. There's the Salton himself, The Bodyguard who protects him and then there's the main Bandit and the strange mystical woman.
They're the only ones that have any real dialogue with each other and the only characters that have something resembling a personality. Everyone else is just kind of there. They have little specks of humanity tossed their way. But ultimately just serve to get the rest of her characters from one point to the next.
If you're looking for a movie with well-rounded characters and internal drama then you may want to look somewhere else. This is more of a spectacle film. Let's look at large angle shots of various spots and Central Asia and wherever else they may have filmed. And have some amusing gunfights and a Chase involving a herd of horses.
*Tamga Is a kind of Royal seal. It's an item that indicates the power of the Sultan and gives authority to whoever holds it.
It's also something of a mystical item because when average people see if they tend to bow down to whoever is holding it for claiming their loyalty that person regardless of any other circumstance.
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