Slavic

The Return (Возвращение) is a 2003 Russian drama, one of the most globally famous among recent-ish Russian art films. The film tells the story of two young brothers, Andrey and Ivan, whose father unexpectedly appears in their lives. The brothers have barely even met their father before this—they know him only from a single old […]

Bishkek, I Love You (Бишкек, я люблю тебя) is a 2011 Kyrgyz comedy/drama film. The film’s tagline was “The first film about your favorite city” (“Первый фильм про твой любимый город”), highlighting how its goal was not only to tell a good story but specifically to give Bishkek the film treatment it deserves. Ruslan Akun […]

Salaam, New York (Салам, Нью-Йорк) is a 2013 Kyrgyz film by director Ruslan Akun (Руслан Акун), who also directed and wrote 2011’s Bishkek, I Love You (Бишкек, я люблю тебя). Akun also wrote the film, along with Gulzhan Toktogulova (Гульжан Токтогулова). It was based on true events—Akun’s time studying at a visual arts school in […]

Jamilya (Джамилья) is a 1968 Kyrgyz drama and a classic of Kyrgyz and Russian cinema. Jamilya is based on the 1958 book of the same name by Chingiz Aitmatov (Чингиз Айтматов), who is probably Kyrgyzstan’s greatest cultural export and certainly its best-loved writer. (A statue of him stands right across from the main square in […]

The Admiral (Адмиралъ) is a 2008 biopic by Russian director Andrey Kravchuk (Андрей Кравчук). The film deals with the life of Aleksandr Kolchak, vice-admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy and a leader of the anticommunist White Movement during the Russian Civil War. A major aspect of the film is also the love triangle among Kolchak, […]

The Three Bogatyrs: The Princess of Shamakhi (Три богатыря и Шамаханская царица; also known as How Not to Rescue a Princess in English) is a Russian animated film from 2010, the fourth in the Bogatyr series from Melnitsa Studios. The film starts out with the princess of Shamakhi (a city in present-day Azerbaijan) trying to […]

Sevara Nazarxon (or Севара Назархан) is an extremely popular contemporary Uzbek singer and composer. She sings both pop and Uzbek folk music, in Uzbek, Russian, and English, and her usual style combines both pop and folk. She is one of the most, if not definitely the most, successful and popular singers in the history of […]

Nazgul Toktakunova (Назгуль Токтакунова) is a Kyrgyz pop singer. Some of her music—she sings in both Kyrgyz and Russian—is influenced by rap and hip-hop stylings, though most of her music is more generally pop-y. Toktakunova was born in 1987 in Bishkek. She always wanted to become a singer—and in 2015 she said she thought that […]