Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg

Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg

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 for Abdulladzhan, or Dedicated to Steven Spielberg...

Shukhrat Kayumov
Abdulladzhan - alien
Tuti Yusupova
Holida-aka - Bazarbai's wife
Tuychi Aripov
Rais-ota - collective farm chairman
Sergei Dreiden
airplane pilot
Abror Tursunov
шофер председателя
Ergash Muminov
Boltobay - Bazarbai's son
Vladimir Menshov
Ivan Ivanovich Nakhlobuchko - general
Vladimir Tsvetov
Vladimir Tsvetov - tv journalist
Yulduz Khamidova
Bazarbai's daughter
Barno Qodirova
Bazarbai's daughter
Gennadios Patsis
militsiya officer near the gate
Stanislav Falko
collective farm deputy chairman
Ulmas Yusupov
Amajan - militsiya major
Maksud Atabaev
village resident (uncredited)
Khusan Musabayev
Bazarbai's relative (uncredited)
Grigoriy Kim
mr. To Yama - representative Geisha corporation (uncredited)
Zulfikar Musakov
Amatjan - militsiya officer (uncredited)
Rafik Yusupov
Holmirza (uncredited)
Diyas Rakhmatov
Hairdresser (uncredited)
Tursunboy Iminov
village resident (uncredited)
Boris Kostenko
TV presenter of the program «TSN»