The Eagle Huntress is a 2016 internationally co-produced Kazakh-language documentary film directed by Otto Bell and narrated by executive producer Daisy Ridley.

After the competition, she takes the final step toward becoming an eagle hunter by traveling with her father to the mountains in the winter to hunt foxes, braving snowy conditions and extreme cold.

[8] Director Otto Bell said of Ridley, "Like so many other theatergoers around the world, I was blown away by Daisy's recent portrayal of an empowered female protagonist [Rey in The Force Awakens].

The website's critics consensus states: "Effectively stirring and bolstered by thrilling visuals, The Eagle Huntress uses its heartwarming message to fill up a feature that might have made for an even more powerful short film.

[28] A 2014 article by a consultant on the film, Dennis Keen, suggests that women in Aisholpan's region faced a "knee-jerk reaction based on a traditionalist understanding of society and the sexes," such that their achievements "are dismissed by nearly every prominent falconer in Central Asia" because they represented "a serious disturbance in how things are done.

And in a 4 March 2014 article entitled "Falconry Tournament Tests Ancient Skills"[25] by Asset Kalymov for The Astana Times news, two of the men mentioned in the above-noted article as having blessed Makpal's eagle hunting career were described as: "famous berkutchis Aben Toktasynuly and Seitzhan Kodekov whose efforts in the early 1990s helped revive this Kazakh tradition."

In an article dated 26 February 2013 by Nadezhda Plyaskina called "The Basic Instinct" with a photo by Roman Egorov,[26] Akbota Bagashar is noted as having competed at the "Sonar-2013" festival, near Nura, a 3 day competition with 40 competitors, involving shirga (lures) and live prey.

[27] In this article, Tanna reports on her experience visiting Bayan-Ölgii, and quotes an 80-year-old eagle hunter named Ajken Tabysbek's belief that the film was a publicity stunt: She did it for the cameras.

It is a shame that the blame for this situation originated with a professional photographer and a filmmaker who decided to make Aisholpan famous for their own gain.Aisholpan stated her desire to study medicine and become a doctor.

[29] Source: September 21, 2023, story by retired journalist, Asha Tanna, for Al Jazeera English news entitled, "In search of the eagle huntresses of western Mongolia" located at url: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2023/9/21/mongolia-eagle-huntresses