Directed by award-winning director Sergey Bodrov (Nomad, Prisoner of the Mountains), Mongol recounts the early life of Tiemuzhen/Temudgin who was a slave before going on to conquer half the world and be known as Genghis Khan. Based on leading scholarly accounts and written by Bodrov and Arif Aliyev, Mongol delves into the dramatic and harrowing early years of the ruler who was born as Temudgin in 1162. As it follows Temudgin from his perilous childhood to the battle that sealed his destiny, the film paints a multidimensional portrait of the future conqueror, revealing him not as the evil brute of hoary stereotype, but as an inspiring, fearless and visionary leader. Mongol shows us the making of an extraordinary man, and the foundation on which so much of his greatness rested: his relationship with his wife, Borte, his lifelong love and most trusted advisor. Filmed in the very lands that gave birth to Genghis Khan, Mongol transports us back to a distant and exotic period in world history; to a nomad's landscape of endless space, climatic extremes and ever-present danger.

The film is set in the 12th century. Yasugai of the Mongolian Qiyan Clan kidnaps He'erlun from the Mie'erpi Tribe and makes the woman his wife--who soon, in the chaos of wars between tribes, gives birth to Tiemuzhen. A Tartar assists in delivering the boy. That same Tartar later colludes with Talihutai of Qiyan: his wife, Bo'ertie, is abducted by the Mie'erpi people in revenge of Tesugai's early kidnapping of He'erlun. Risking his mother's life by using her as a hhostage, Tiemuzhen maneuvers an attack on Mie'erpi and rescues Bo'ertie. However, she is found already pregnant. In an extreme agony and confusion, Tiemuzhen kills the head man of the tartar, who has come to assail, to avenge his father. In the battlefield, He'erlun tells her son that the Tartar with goshawk tattoos on his arms is who delivered him onto this world. In such drastic shock, Tiemuzhen suddenly strikes his enlightenment. With remarkable tolerance and clemency, he accepts Bo'ertie and her baby, decides to overlook his personal hatred and clan hostility and to terminate the wars with a final fight. A history of a thousand years of killings between clans is therefore ended and the prairie of Mongolia becomes a unity in peace. Tiemuzhen is then recognized as "Genghis Khan".