The Eagle Huntress: Exclusive clip sees Daisy Ridley narrate a truly feminist tale
The documentary follows 13-year-old Aisholpan, the Mongolian teenager who broke boundaries to become the first female eagle hunter in her country
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Your support makes all the difference.The Age of Daisy Ridley has arrived. Her gutsy, determined take on Rey, the protagonist at the centre of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has enraptured a new legion of adoring fans and quickly established her as a future major Hollywood player.
With Star Wars: Episode VIII set to begin filming next year, she'll only further cement those blockbuster credentials in the next couple of years; yet, what's been wonderful to see is Ridley utilise her newfound star power to bring attention to smaller, worthy artistic projects.
She's already lent her voice to Studio Ghibli's Only Yesterday, which finally received both a North American release and English language dub track this year a full 25 years after debuting in Japan.
Now, she's joined The Eagle Huntress: an inspirational documentary which follows 13-year-old Aisholpan, the Mongolian teenager who broke boundaries to become the first female eagle hunter in her country. Filmmaker Otto Bell first discovered Aisholpan while looking through a series of photographs by Israeli artist Asher Svidensky in 2014, struck by how empowering a simple shot of a girl and her eagle could be.
The film follows Aisholpan as she captures her own eagle - a vital first step in the tradition - undergoes intensive training with the aid of her father, and eventually becomes both the youngest contestant and first woman ever to take part in the Golden Eagle Festival in Ölgii.
Only a week before the doc premiered at Sundance, Ridley got hold of a copy of the film and fell in love with Aisholpan's story; swiftly coming on as executive producer, and eventually adding several pieces of narration to the film.
It's a simple, but beautifully empowering story of what young women can do when they refuse to believe in the limits the world tries to place on them; one that can hopefully inspire others to do the same and keeping breaking those boundaries.
The Eagle Huntress hits UK cinemas on 16 December.
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