In case you didn’t get the memo-post-Soviet cinema is thriving. It’s unsurprising that there are two separate film festivals in D. (Klonopin) C. this month that deal with the tragic beauty and realities which linger over much of the former Soviet Union.
Recently emerged from the shroud of centuries of empire, the Newly Independent States of Central Asia boast a surprisingly rich cinematic tradition. Featuring 15 films ranging from 1945’s Uzbek classic black-and-white period costume drama Takhir and Zukhra to 2002’s gritty urban comedy Boys in the Sky, Central Asian cinema’s separate evolution from the West becomes immediately apparent. Considering these directors are the heirs to the Soviet propagandist tradition, the films screened at the “Cinema of Central Asia” festival become even more compelling.
Haunted by the harshness inherent in the Eurasian landscape, these films possess authentic depths of sense and memory that Western films will forever lack. Aktan Abdikalikov’s The Swing uses striking imagery to compensate for the lack of dialogue, revealing the isolation of a Kyrgyz peasant boy dealing with the loss of his grandmother. Darezhan Omirbaev’s semiautobiographical film Kairat follows a boy through his detached adolescence spent wandering awkwardly on trains and buses in the city and over the steppe. Evolving outside the influence of Hollywood, these films are unvarnished and poetic.
At the Chechnya Independent Documentary Film Festival the consequences and causes of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya are explored. The festival’s nine films offer a range of perspectives on the conflict between the Chechen separatists and Russian government.
Dan Reed’s Terror in Moscow, a BBC4 production, examines 2002’s Chechen siege of Moscow’s Nord Ost theater and the Russian government’s controversial rescue attempt, administering tear gas which proved deadly for many hostages. Director Paul Mitchell will be on hand to introduce his film Greetings from Grozny, which contains grim footage of the Russian army “mopping up” a Chechen village, as well as testimonials from Chechen civilians.
Thoroughly schooled in the “Hollywood tradition,” we can all take something meaningful away from these divergent strands of cinematography.
“Cinema of Central Asia” screens at the National Gallery of Art and the Freer Gallery of Art on weekends through Sept. 28. Chechnya Independent Documentary Film Festival screens at Visions Cinema and the United States Holocaust Museum from Sept. 16-18.
