Panorama of Uzbek cinema
In the early 1930s, Uzbek director Suleyman Khodjaev directed Before Sunrise. This film tells the story of the revolt of the people of Central Asia against the mobilization for war decreed by the Tsar in 1916. Khodjaev is deported and dies in the gulag, just after the release of the film. The director's death alone represents the extreme severity and censorship of Uzbek cinema in the USSR. In the 1960s, three films, including Shoukrat Abassov's Tashkent, City of Bread (1968), had the mad audacity to talk about Uzbekistan, the culture of its people, its traditions and the difficulties of daily life. The New Wave, which is all the rage throughout the world, and the "détente" initiated by Khrushchev trigger this misbehaviour that the Brezhnev period immediately tries to erase. A few rare filmmakers, such as the director Kamara Kamalova, nonetheless pursue a personal work. In Le Sauvage, a young man slaps an omnipotent character and fears for the entire neighbourhood that he has been terrorizing for years. The parallel is barely concealed. Perestroika, then independence, are an opportunity for young, somewhat provocative directors to free their imagination and evoke the identity of the Uzbek people, like Djahongir Faiziev in Qui es-tu toi? (1989). That same year, Zulfikar Moussakov's A Soldier's Story plants the camera in a barracks where soldiers from Uzbekistan and Russia try in vain to understand each other and communicate in a world where orders must be obeyed.
Lighting by Gérard Depardieu
Nowadays, Uzbek cinema is struggling to make a place for itself in the spotlight. The increase in film tourism (travel to filming locations or places in films) gives Uzbekistan a reason to increase its film industry. Uzbekistan is trying to develop its economy by attracting directors and producers to its lands. In 2019, the country, always seeking development, is joining forces with Japan in a co-production to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations. This is how Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed the melancholy and sensitive Au bout du monde, in Tashkent. The same year, French actor Gérard Depardieu, a true lover of Uzbekistan, became the official ambassador of Uzbek tourism in France. Depardieu is also at the heart of the project On the Silk Roads, a documentary produced by the national tourism committee and B-Tween (a French production company). The Uzbek cinema is therefore to be watched and may well have some nice surprises in store for us very soon..
