Overrated

One of my all time favorites.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

a religious film. that is the point who, I suppose, explains it in a wise manner. not as manifesto against Mongols, not as a story about Russia. only as story of sacrifice and faith. sure, it is only a point of view. sure, it is a too subjective film and that is not a real surprise. because the cruelty, the week leaders, the powerful women, the story of Alexey and the moral victory are pieces of a portrait who defines way for assume the past. looking historical accuracy it is bizarre work. because the atmosphere, the tale, the mission of an hierarch are only important things. and, sure, the victory of Orthodox Church against an ambiguous evil. a film who could be useful for understand Russia out of definitions.

I give one snot to the reviewer here who claims to be a history buff. You really need to spend more time reading. I indeed found this to be a true depiction of the declining life of the Tatars (a.k.a. Golden Horde). They had already climaxed as a civilization and were just a short time from total defeat by the Russians. Thank goodness for that! What a perfect time to tell the story of a priest and his journey of faith. I found the writing of this screenplay to be amazing in its depth and the film itself visually striking. One of the best films I have ever seen out of Russia. A big hit at the Moscow film festival, you just cannot stop watching.

For the record, I'm not Muslim or Tatar or anything like that. But this movie was disgraceful. The whole movie seems like a youtube video made by amateurs who want to portray some sort of evil group of humans--who act anything BUT human. Just killing random people, torturing people, etc. etc.There isn't a fight scene in the whole movie. So don't expect a war movie, from something called "The Horde".Just shows a fake story about how awful life is like under the Golden Horde.Even the Russian-expert hired to tell the director/writers about Golden Horde history, condemned the movie and said this is just a sickening evil portrayal of the Golden Horde and has nothing to do with reality.It's as if the Russian director thought about how he could make Christians look good and how he could make Tatars look like inhumane animals. This was his goal and this is what he portrayed in his film.It was incredibly boring and a waste of my time.

Are you sure you are well enough informed about all "historical value"? have you any idea about mongol-tatar yoke over Russia (more than 200 years)? So what exactly attitude you expect, when describing this particular period? Well, maybe Mongolian version is better and more different, it is... well understandable. But it's Russian history and Russian film. There are so much historical sources about how Russian were killed in a most cruel ways, thousands of them, families and towns. There was almost no life at all, how you expect all this feelings in every soul - fear and anger - to be shown? And yes, it the almost beginning of Christianity in Russia, with all passion and exaggеration, but also with all self-sаcrifice, specific for the period. So for me portraits of Mongolians are interesting and even soft... Or you expect always Russians to be bad, no matter who is opposite, Goebbels or Mongolians of the Horde, or etc. Time was full of cruelty, hatred, collision... and it is shown. I don't say the film is brilliant. But it is easy to fill your review with "interesting" phrases like "paranoid, hyper racist anti Asian propaganda", "KGB/orthodox church sponsored rubbish", "Goebbels anti Jews propaganda"... They are attractive and welcome for haters. But understanding is something different.