East of the West 2001 / Bo Ba Bu / Italy, Uzbekistan, France 2000
Two primitive shepherds, Bo and Bu, live among ruins in the desert. One day the two men come across a young woman in a sandy waste who shows evidence of having been injured. Fragments of foreign objects are lying about nearby. The light-haired and seemingly cultivated woman has lost her memory as a result of some terrible experiences and can no longer speak. Renamed Ba, she struggles, however humbly, against being forced into the role of a slave. The men humiliate and abuse her in every way imaginable and finally sell her. Somewhere close by is a town where archaic Eastern customs prevail although a modern military presence points to the current state of things. . . . This didactic story about male superiority and brutality has been elaborated in the form of an allegory, and is set in an unspecified, timeless central Asian location. Although the film reveals the darkest aspects of human nature and a horribly barbaric perception of the world, all scenes are captured by the camera of a sophisticated aesthete. The resulting effect is an endless flow of beautiful images.
82 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Ali Khamraev
/ Screenplay Ali Khamraev
/ Dir. of Photography Robberto Meddi
/ Music Claude Samard
/ Editor Bruno Sarandea
/ Producer Roustam Ibragimov
/ Production Roustam Ibragimov
/ Cast Arielle Dombasle, Abrashid Abdrakhmanov, Djavakhir Zakhirov
Ali Khamrayev (b. 1937) graduated from Moscow’s Film School (VGIK) in 1961 and immediately became a leading personality of Uzbek film. His most memorable films expressively and poetically capture the historical and cultural essence of his nation; these include: White, White Storks (Bielie, bielie aisty, 1966), Dilorom (1968), An Emergency Commissar (Chrezvychaini komisar, 1970), Fearless (Biez strakha, 1971), The Seventh Bullet (Sedmaya pulia, 1972), The Admirer (Poklonnik, 1973), A Man Follows the Birds (Cheloviek ukhodit za ptitsami, 1975), Triptych (1977), Bodyguard (Tielokhranitel, 1979), A Hot Summer in Kabul (Zharkoye lieto v Kabule, 1983), The Bride of Vuadil (Nieviesta iz Vuadila, 1984), I Remember You (Ya tiebia pomniu, 1985), The Garden of Wishes (Sad zhelani, 1987). After a long break, which included a stay abroad, he made the co-production Bo Ba Bu (1998).
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