Panorama of Uzbek cinema
In the early 1930s, Uzbek director Suleyman Khodjaev made Before Sunrise. The film recounts the revolt of the people of Central Asia against the mobilization for war decreed by the Tsar in 1916. Khodjaev was deported and died in the Gulag just after the film's release. The director's death illustrates the extreme severity and censorship of Uzbek cinema in the USSR. In the 1960s, three films, including Tashkent, City of Bread (1968), by Shoukrat Abassov, had the audacity to talk about Uzbekistan, its people's culture, traditions and the difficulties of daily life.
The New Wave, which was all the rage around the world, and the "détente" initiated by Khrushchev, gave impetus to this opening-up that the Brezhnev period immediately tried to erase. A few rare filmmakers, such as director Kamara Kamalova, nevertheless continued to produce their own work. In Le Sauvage, a young man slaps the face of an omnipotent figure feared by the whole neighborhood, which he has terrorized for years. The allusion to the powers that be is barely concealed. Perestroika, then independence, was an opportunity for young, slightly provocative directors to unleash their imagination and evoke the identity of the Uzbek people, such as Djahongir Faiziev with Qui es-tu toi? (1989). The same year, Zoulfikar Moussakov's Une histoire de soldat (A Soldier's Story) took the camera into a barracks where soldiers from Uzbekistan and Russia tried in vain to understand and communicate with each other in a world where orders had to be obeyed without question.
Lighting by Gérard Depardieu
These days, Uzbek cinema is struggling to establish itself in the spotlight. The increase in film tourism (travel to film locations) gives the country a reason to expand its film industry. Indeed, Uzbekistan is trying to develop its economy by attracting filmmakers and producers to its shores.
In 2019, the country joined forces with Japan in a co-production to celebrate 25 years of diplomatic relations. Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa made the melancholy and sensitive Au bout du monde, à Tashkent. The same year, French actor Gérard Depardieu became the official ambassador for Uzbek tourism in France. Depardieu was also at the heart of Sur les routes de la soie, a documentary produced by the National Tourism Committee and B-Tween (a French production company). Uzbek cinema is one to watch, and is sure to have some surprises in store for us... very soon.
