Video

Tarkovsky: Films of Eternal Complexity

Russian film critic Maya Turovskaya writes in Tarkovsky: Cinema as Poetry that when she attended a special screening of Andrey Tarkovsky’s first film, Ivan’s Childhood, at a meeting of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, the prevailing opinion amongst the audience was that of awe mixed with confusion. This feeling of mystification, of seeing […]

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Kurmanjan Datka: American Students Review a Modern Kyrgyz Film

Chernukha: Russia’s Tough Truths Through The Filmmaker’s Lens

Music

The Dombyra: The Kazakh’s Musical Soul

The dombyra (домбыра) is a lute-style instrument. It is an ancient and quintessential piece of Kazakh culture and identity. In its most popular form, the dombyra has two-strings strung down a long, skinny neck and a pear-shaped body, flat at the front and rounded on the backside. The standard English spelling of dombra is taken […]

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Six Georgian Bands Bringing Traditional Polyphony into the Pop Music Age

Georgian Hip Hop: Identity and Politics in Modern Music