Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg

Overview

Considering that Musakov’s Abdulladzhan (1991) was dedicated to Steven Spielberg, we might suggest that these four boys embody nothing more complicated than a conflict of youthful innocence with some ominous threat—the basic workings of E.T. (1982) or War of the Worlds (2005), say. That threat, however, is best understood not through vague nationalism or warmed-over socialism, but through the other reference-point of Abdulladzhan—Tarkovskii’s Stalker (1980). Musakov leaves his boys in a simplified radiance so bright and so overexposed that it no longer looks like the skies of sunny Tashkent, but a disturbing, borderless luminosity to match the flat tonal range of Stalker’s “Zone.” Our Uzbek boys are nowhere in particular; this is a broader domain than anything international.

Cast

Shukhrat Kayumov

Abdulladzhan - alien

Tuti Yusupova

Holida-aka - Bazarbai's wife

Radzhab Adashev

Bazarbai

Tuychi Aripov

Rais-ota - collective farm chairman

Dzhavlon Khamrayev

Yuldash

Khodzhiakbar Nurmatov

Hasanbai

Jamol Hoshimov

Matkaul

Sergey Dreyden

airplane pilot

Galina Lukovnikova-Mamedova

village resident

Abror Tursunov

шофер председателя