Last
January, Alla Verlotsky of Seagull Films took a trip home to Central Asia in
search of the best the region’s cinematic tradition had to offer. In a region
not quite Asian, Middle Eastern or Russian, Verlotsky and her friend Kent Jones
of New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center (Filmlinc) discovered a beautiful
cinematic identity reaching across religion, culture and tradition.
Less
than three months later, a complete concept with a viable list of films was
developed and offered to Filmlinc as “Films from along the Silk Road.” This
series is now gracing New York during the month of May with its montage of old
and new, traditional and progressive, and uniquely artistic films.
The
series highlights 40 films from the five “Stans”: Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan,
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Called the Silk Road for the great trade
route that ran through the region, the series features films mostly unheard of
to a Western audience. In fact these films are probably the first comprehensive
retrospective to come from the five “Stans”.
Verlotsky
says that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the distribution and promotion
of films from Central Asia also was lost. But these countries were making films
as early as 1897, though only audiences in that region were privy to watching
them.
For
example, a Tashkent studio established in Uzbekistan in 1924 produced numerous
propaganda films urging “Islamic women to take off their veils, study in
schools and be useful to the Communist society,” Verlotsky says. Though these
films played around the region, they encountered stiff resistance in Uzbekistan
from the local Muslim community, she adds.
These
themes of “communizing” Muslim and other communities in Central Asia
are echoed in some of the fascinating films featured in the series. One such is
Ali Khamraev’s 1972 film, “Without Fear.” The movie follows an Uzbek Red
Army officer’s attempt at modernizing a local village by encouraging women to
unveil. One young woman sets the example causing a turn of “tragic
encounters”.
Another
film of interest to Muslim audiences is Jamshed Usmonov’s 1998 movie “The
Flight of the Bee”. Called “a fable of new Tadjikistan,” the film focuses
on a gentle Muslim headmaster who wants his family to be left alone. To his
chagrin a wealthy businessman moves in and starts a feud that serves as a
metaphor for the rampant capitalism that obliterated old values after the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
Such
films highlight the vast cultural differences and artistic nuances central to
the films of the Silk Road series. The plots, themes and cinematography are
uniquely different from the Western film industry. The brochure for the series
says the films are “worth the effort.”
What
that means, Jones says, is that sometimes “audiences resist things which
require them to shift or expand their frame of reference. It's a pretty natural
impulse, to stay with what you know. These are movies that will be like a bolt
from the blue for many people — cinematically, culturally.”
The
“Films from along the Silk Road” will be airing in New York through the
month of May at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. In June
and July the series will travel to the Art Institute of Chicago, then onto the
Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. in September and October. Verlotsky is working
to bring the series to other U.S. cities as well. She hopes to complete
commercial DVD distribution for some of the films after the series ends, or at
the very least select distribution for collegiate study.
For
more information about the series, email Verlotsky at Seagullfilms@att.net
or call the Walter Reade Theater in New York at 212-875-5600.
