a shrine to the films of Talasfilm, the steppe, the horses, and to KARA-BEK
Where it all starts. 1922: Daniyar and five men steal the clan's horses back from Kara-Bek's caravanserai, at night, almost thirty minutes with no words. Then they turn on each other in the sands. The salt flat at noon. Daniyar alone with the herd and you don't know whose side he is on. Sadikov said he didn't even like westerns. He invented ours anyway.
Rival clans race a prize stallion. Aslanov was supposed to direct Desert Sun's Rebellion and was replaced, and this is his answer. Kara-Bek (Sultanbekov) is here, cheating at the race in the most elegant way.
Gulnara Alimbekova in the lead. Slow, beautiful, too much sand in my opinion.
A wanderer with no name helps a woman escape a whole army of bandits in the desert. Asylbekov's camera: every frame is a painting.
A border tracker after smugglers over the Tian Shan passes. Snow instead of sand, for once. Jumabaev's music.
The comedy one: a kolkhoz bookkeeper is mistaken for a legendary avenger. Almaz Sarybaev appears and parodies his own Daniyar. My father knows every line. The biggest hit of the decade at home.
The last great Eastern. A rider's family is killed by a warlord (Kara-Bek, of course) and the whole film is the ride for revenge. Fast like nothing else from that time. Shakirov died in Talas in 1992, in his home. Watch it for him.
A young horse trainer lost in a sandstorm, three horses, bandits behind him. The end of the cycle. You can feel the eighties ending.
∩ = one horseshoe. Five horseshoes = watch it tonight.
Uyalar.net
