In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Tim Cope's trek is an astonishing accomplishment--especially for a young man who had never ridden a horse before starting. It's both informative and very moving. I started watching it as research for a novel,started making notes, but ended up just letting it play out as I became so caught up in it.Cope did almost all of the filming himself, which means that he must have covered much of the trail twice--once to go ahead and set up his camera, and then backtracking to ride up to it. That, and backtracking to retrieve his camera after riding away from it.He lets us in on his best and worst moments of the trip and seems completely unguarded.My only complaint is that I wish he had had a better camera--or maybe whoever transferred the images to DVD just didn't do that great a job. I know that video formats advance almost weekly but the image quality, by today's standards, seems a bit fuzzy and washed out. Even the frame and titling for the episode menu on the DVD look soft to me. At one point you get a look at his camera in the special features section, and it doesn't exactly look like a high-end model. I assume he was limited by what he could carry and his budget.Fortunately, Cope is an excellent cinematographer with a fine eye. He composes many beautiful frames and the camera is rock steady for the most part. The sound is also pretty good.Whatever camera he used, it's astonishing that he managed to keep it working through the whole three years under the extreme temperatures he suffered through. At least, he never talks about any equipment failures.Clearly, he wanted our attention on the peoples, the animals, and the landscapes he shows to us--and he does a superb job.Maybe the best travel piece I've ever seen.

From the 1st episode till the last one - this was an absolute knocker! The way Tim learns the tricks - from horse riding to dealing with dishonest man - is so humbling. The difficulties he faces when crossing into Russia and when his dog gets lost in Kazakh...and of course the most touching moment when he loses his father in accident in Australia. The fight between Tatars and the Russians is a sad reflection of the state of our human society today - the powerful desire and the powerless want. And at times how different poor nomad families came to his rescue to help with his animals, food, journeys bears upon the fact that there are still people out there who would help you expecting nothing in return.All of it make this one as one of the best I have seen. And this comes from someone who watches documentaries/travel shows day in and day out! Hats off to Tim.