Cinema
The Orator
Voiz
Yusup Razykov · 1998
Synopsis
Tashkent, on the eve of the revolution. Iskandar, a good-natured coachman, lives happily with his three wives: to the orphan he married out of pity have been added the two widows of his brother, whom Muslim law obliges him to take in. He hides in his home a wounded Russian revolutionary who, once the revolution is made, will turn him into an agitator. Iskandar discovers a gift for stirring crowds and develops a taste for his popularity, while a commissar secretly becomes his fourth wife. His son tells the story.
Context
The film is written and directed by Razykov, who also produced it. The cinematography is by Ulugbek Khamraev, the music by Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky; it runs from eighty-three to eighty-five minutes depending on the prints and is dated 1998 or 1999. Its author says he wanted a conformist hero, who joins the Bolsheviks to protect his family, and to show how difficult it was for the Uzbeks to give up their past. The film recounts the establishment of Soviet power through the relations between the four wives of a patriarchal household, and it shows the absurdity of the forced removal of the veil, with as much empathy as irony.
Who it is for
No French version. A tragicomedy of one hour twenty, between irony and parable, about the revolution seen from a Muslim household.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prize at the Kinochok festival in Anapa in 1999. It then toured the international festivals, where it was praised.
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