Genghis Khan (1950 film)

Genghis Khan tells the story of Temujin (Manuel Conde), a young Mongol prince who takes part in a series of challenges against rival tribes for land rights. Under the auspices of Burchou (Lou Salvador) and his beautiful daughter, Lei Hai (Elvira Reyes), Temujin uses his wits to prevail against larger, stronger opponents to emerge victorious.

Unknown to any of the participants, Burchou’s advisor had arranged for his lord’s forces to massacre all the rival tribal leaders at that evening’s celebratory feast. Temujin barely escapes with his life, and makes his way home to find his village destroyed and his mother near death.

Instilled with a desire for revenge, the young prince begins spreading the word of Burchou’s treachery, competing at the Man of Men contest, falling in love with the enemy commander's daughter, and struggling to restore his demolished hometown, forging alliances and building a power base that will culminate with him ascending to the position of great conqueror.

• Manuel Conde as Genghis Khan
• Elvira Reyes as Lei Hu
• Inday Jalandoni as Börte
• Jose Villafranca
• Lou Salvador as Burchou
• Don Dano as Darmo Acosta
• Africa Dela Rosa
• Ric Bustamante
• Ely Nakpil
• Johnny Monteiro
• Andres Centenera
• Leon Lizares

The prints of the first ever Filipino movie to be shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1952 were lost—and found.

The restored “Genghis Khan,” in high definition and digital cinema package (DCP) format, had a grand premiere at the 69th Venice International Film Festival on September 6, the same day that another Filipino film, Brillante Mendoza’s Thy Womb, screens as an entry in the main competition of the fest.

It’s a fitting homecoming for “Genghis Khan” in Venice where it competed for the Golden Lion and reportedly drew raves from audiences six decades ago. It was considered the “Holy Grail” of Filipino film archiving. Some Filipino archivists thought that the Manuel Conde 1950 historical epic film had been irretrievably lost “as there is no existing print in the country,” according to Briccio Santos, chair of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the government agency tasked to oversee the movie industry. In a 2005 Inquirer story titled “Where in the world is ‘Genghis Khan,’” Filipino archivists said that prints of the movie were stashed away in various film vaults in Europe.

Early this year, the Venice International Film Festival, led by its director Alberto Barbera, thought of including “Genghis” in a new section called “80!”—a retrospective of past entries. Ten films are part of the retro and “Genghis” is the only Filipino film in the lineup. (The digitally restored “Himala,” directed by National Artist for Film Ishmael Bernal, is in a different section of the Venice fest: Venezia Classici.)

As seen in the original posters, Manuel Conde shares directional credit with Lou Salvador as a concession to the actor for agreeing to shave his head for his villain role as Burchou. Despite this, Conde had the full control in directing the film and Salvador didn't have a single directional input towards the film. New re-releases of the film now remove Salvador's directional credit and only bear Conde's name in the posters.[4][1]

• List of Asian historical drama films

• Genghis Khan at IMDB