Central Asian Cinema

[Johann]

The pacific cinematheque is currently screening a series called Along The Silk Road: Central Asian Cinema.

I watched 2 features and two shorts by two directors who I had no clue existed.

First was the short July by Darezhan Omirbaev. 25 minutes, beautiful black and white piece. 2 young boys go to a Bollywood movie in their desolate town. They want to see the second screening but have no more money. They try to sell melons to a passing train conductor, but the train pulls away while the guy is going to get the cash. Sad but great short.

The next film was also by Omirbaev: Kairat. Made in 1992, it's hailed as one of the best films of the 90's, and I was interested, but only up to a point. Kairat is a drifting kid, not really knowing where he's going or what he's doing. You hope something significant is going to happen, but nothing does! It's like Hitchcock without the suspense. No plot twists. No forward movement (aside from literal movement) and I found myself a wee bit annoyed that nothing was happening. I was just a voyeur at a film. Not much else to say. Well crafted, but lord almighty was I hoping for some action.

Second on the bill: My Brother Silk Road
This made up for my lethargic feelings after Kairat. Obviously Fellini inspired (I was reminded of Amarcord- especially with the fat prostitute), I thoroughly enjoyed Marat Surulu's excellent black and white snapshot of Kyrgyastan's silk road and steppes.
All of the characters are lively and interesting. I was falling in love with the lonely prostitute! It takes place almost entirely on a train and I want to see it again.
The Surulu short The Fly Up prior to "Silk Road" was good, but nothing special. His feature is worth seeing many times.

I'll be seeing some more films from "the stans": Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, & Kyrgyzstan. Rarely seen shit, for sure.

[Johann]

Last Holiday


The opening shots of this 65 min. gem are of a communist parade, celebrating the advances they've made in society.
They wave flags and proudly stomp down the street, smiling at their utopia. It's May Day 1979.

3 youths (Valera, Karim & Jacob) are about to show us Kazakhstan from their point of view. Our first glimpse of these teens is a scene where The Beatles album Help! blares and they pass a joint around. They complain about the Brandy they drink-they really want vodka.

Like 3 droogs with no Alex, they break into a bar and steal a guitar, candy and bottles of cognac.

Their hooligan lives get disrupted when Valera's stepdad Sergei phones the cops after finding the stolen guitar.

Things go from bad to worse when Valera's buddies decide to kill his stepfather.

I shall say no more.
Great film from an unknown auteur named Amir Karakulov.


Oddly, the movie had japanese subtitles displayed vertically on the right hand side of the print.

[Johann]

I'm in my element these days at the cinematheque.

I just saw two poetic masterpieces. One from Turkmenistan and one from Uzbekistan.
The Daughter-in-Law is poetic beyond words. Lilting, soothing, it's damn sublime.

I don't know how I can describe it. "Daughter in Law" is just the title. The film is to be experienced, not watched. Not long after it began I dropped my head onto the back of the theatre seat and let the film wash over me. A 1972 classic that I'm sure no one here has seen. Very emotional film, we are taken to another part of the earth and get to see life from it's inhabitants' POV.

Fearless (or Without Fear) is a tightly wound powerful film.
A woman decides to take off her facial scarf and throw it into a roaring fire in front of the whole village, sparking an uprising of hatred not too different from The Battle of Algiers or Open City.

She hates the fact that men don't have to cover their faces but women do. So she decides to become a symbolic figure in Uzbekistan history. You can guess what kind of opposition she faces. Harrowing and inspiring at the same time.

I'm seeing a Martin Scorsese presentation of The Fall of Otrar and The Fierce One by a renowned director named Okeev next week.

[Johann]

Central Asia has some unbelievable films stashed in it's vaults.
Yet another masterpiece unfolded before my eyes last night.



Man Follows Birds is the story of Farukh, a young man who is searching for the meaning of life. Everytime he thinks he's found it, life hands him a serious setback.

Farukh is considered a nuisance in his village. When the season hits, he shouts to everyone about the almond blossoms. It gets him beat up. Ultimately he's fed up with his life situation and roams Asia, like Caine in Kung-Fu.

An angelic-looking girl has a crush on him but he wants no part of it. He encounters her repeatedly in the film, and only when it's too late does he see that he should elope with her. She is given to another man as Farukh watches in desperation.

He links up with a friend (Khabib) and they trek the steppes, walking sticks in hand, proclaiming their allegiance to the hermit lifestyle.
They go swimming in a hot spring and notice a girl (Gultcha) floating on a giant piece of driftwood. They think she's dead but she's only sleeping.
They become the three musketeers, as it were, because she has run away from home as well.

The ending is so tragic that I was almost angry it ended the way it did. It proves Greenaway's notion that the good are seldom rewarded, the bad go largely unpunished.

A classic. I'm grateful to the cinema gods for allowing me to see it.

[Johann]

The Fall of Otrar
(1991; dir. A. Amirkulov)


After this film was over a friend and I had a great discussion over whether or not it was more inspired by Tarkovsky or Kurosawa.

Epic in the greatest sense of the word, The Fall of Otrar, a Martin Scorsese presentation, was one of the best films I've ever seen.
It's set in a time when Genghis Khan was rampaging the earth, and Amirkulov is a master.

I'm seeing it again tonight, and I'll write a good review tomorrow.
There was so much to take in, but I can say this much: It has a lot of religion, a lot of injustice and a hell of a lot of violence. I noticed a few people get up and leave during the film. Doom on them. They missed a classic.





The Fierce One.
Tolumush Okeev is also a master filmmaker (the programmers of this series chose near-perfect films) and even more people got up and left the theatre during this one.
Made in 1973 in Kazakhstan, this is one harrowing film to watch.

*EXTREME WARNING: EXTREME VIOLENCE TO ANIMALS*

A boy lives with his grandmother and heartless warrior/thief uncle. The first scene we see is his uncle raiding a wolf lair, grabbing wolf cubs and smashing them to death on rocks.
He tells the boy to be a man and smash the last cub. The boy cries and says he won't. The uncle berates him as a coward:
"How will you ever be strong if you can't even kill a wolf cub?"

The boy keeps the cub, raises him as a dog, and life is so harsh on the steppes with "uncle savage" (as I call him) the boy ultimately strikes out on his own, living in the mountains with his beloved wolf.

This movie is almost a documentary, and the child who plays the boy is the greatest child actor I ever seen. I'd like to know what happened to him. There are graphic, no-HORRIFIC scenes of sheep being decimated, wolves being shot to death and just all-around carnage that will have people with weak stomachs wincing and grimacing. The crowd was universally shocked at the brutality on screen, and we all filed out of the theatre a wee bit numb from the experience.

Nevertheless, this film is another classic yet hard to recommend.

[Johann]

Gibel Otrara is told in three parts with a running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes. It's as sweeping as Kurosawa's Ran and as grand as Lawrence of Arabia.

The main character is Unzhu-Khan, a kipshak warrior who is believed to be a mongol spy. He has mental and physical battles throughout the film with Kairkhan, the ruthless leader of the Otrar Army.

Otrar is the epicentre of Islam worship. It is threatened by many opposing forces-Genghis being just one. Parallel to this (the irony!) is a war with Baghdad Iraq, also over religion. Amirkulov keeps the viewer very abreast of the horrors of "church vs. state".
"Allah" is mentioned about a thousand times, and the climax is when Kairkhan meets his arch-enemy: "THE RULER OF THE WORLD". "The Ruler" puts him to death in a way that you'll never forget. (To give a hint, it's a method used in a Tarkovsky film)

The greatness of this movie is the feeling you get when you watch it. You actually feel as if you are watching a film from the time it takes place. The actors seem like real mongols, kipshaks and chinese from the era. I had to see it twice to really get a handle on this long work of art- I don't know much about the Mongol dynasty. The print was pretty bad for a film only 14 years old, but I didn't care one iota. There's a duel between a kipshak and a mongol shot with a long lens that was stunning.

The point is kids, if you like historical epics, look no further.





P.S. This is one of the most "manliest" movies ever made-like Braveheart- raw carnage and combat. There are women in it, but only as mothers, whores and ugly queens.
You've been warned ladies.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks Johann for an invaluable service as there is nearly nothing written in English about Central Asian cinema. Your posts are informative and entertaining. This one's for the printer.

[Johann]

Happy to be an "invaluable service".

It's gonna be a problem locating these films on video. The whole series is still fresh in my mind, and in retrospect these films were awesome. Any one of them could share space on my DVD shelf.

[oscar jubis]

Right now these films are not available on dvd anywhere, I concluded after some research (I wasn't looking for vhs because my players can only handle PAL on dvd). These films are slowly gaining notice (I hope the retro comes to Miami) and some will one day be released. Kairat and Otrar seem likely candidates. I have patience. I've been waiting since last decade to watch the films of Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr and they finally get dvd release in the UK in '04. Besides Central Asia, films from their neighbors in eastern Europe have also been neglected in the West.

[Johann]

Yes, Tarr is an underground god from what I've heard.
(I also haven't seen a single film)

Anyone on these boards see Tarr's work? Let us know...

[oscar jubis]

Almanac of Fall came out on vhs in '93 but I can't find it anywhere. A dvd-r of the 450 minute long Satantango is sold on ebay for a pricy $50. Werckmeister Harmonies and Damnation[/i] come out on a Pal dvd boxset in a month. His somber and bleak vision make Tarr a tough sell.