Vremya jholtoi travy
Tajikistan,
1991, 70 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Mairam Yusupova
- scr
-
A. Katunin, D. Chubinishvili, S. Rahimov
- cam
-
O. Hamidov, Z. Israilov
- cast
-
R. Makarov, S. Abdulkaisov, T. Ahmedovd
- prod co
-
Tajikfilm Studio
- source
-
Russian Filmmakers Union
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Mairam Yusupova in person.
OTHER
This haunting, uncompromising meditation from the former Soviet Union republic, Tajikistan, blends a moral fable with cinema verité, documentary-style filmmaking to invent a new genre: metaphorical realism. A bleak isolated village tenuously survives from one generation to the next through a time-tested reliance on ritual and nature. But the discovery of an unknown corpse one harsh, sunny day throws the community into a panic of indecision. The men gather in a circle, shuffling their feet, while the women agitatedly focus on their household tasks. Only the stoic goats and the village fool seem unfazed by the strange event. The lack of leadership is paralyzing and superstition, it seems, will prevail. The taciturn, grimfaced villagers finally adopt a course of action, but a worrisome question lingers: If this silent, unthreatening emissary from the outside world wreaks such havoc on the fragile community, what will happen when living, breathing visitors arrive? Clearly, the ways of the past, honed by repetition for eons, offer a desperately incomplete blueprint for addressing the new and chaotic world disorder. Director Mariam Yusupova, making extraordinary use of a stark, primal style and a miniscule budget, deftly evokes echoes of Kiarostami and Ray.
—Michael Fox
FACTOID #347
The world premiere of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert took place at the 1994 San Francisco International Film Festival at the Castro Theatre.
