BRATAN

For Farukh and his brother Azamat the journey to the big city by slow train takes forever. After the death of his mother, Farukh wants his little brother to live with his father. With every kilometre they feel freer and more self-confident, every next stop promises both new hopes and new challenges. At the same time, the sense of anticipation at seeing their father again, the man who left the family a few years ago to work in the city, grows. The fact that the father now lives with a new wife and that, despite the pleasantries, there is no place for Azamat; that the city society welcomes its unexpected guests with an apprehension towards strangers and with beatings; all of this brings bitter disappointment for these guests from the countryside. In the end, the travellers head back; the journey was the goal. This feature film debut from Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov, who passed away far too early in 2015, reads today like a parable of the hopes that followed the implosion of the totalitarian socialist states and the disappointments that followed. In cinematic terms, it continues to enthral audiences with its awe-inspiring landscape panoramas and thrilling on-the-railroad atmosphere. A promise of freedom that the director contemplatively breaks down to a realistic emotional level, where happiness and decline are two sides of the same coin. The film was not long ago restored by Berlin-based director Veit Helmer and recently screened in the Venice Classics section at the Venice Film Festival.

 
Weltspiegel: original version with english subtitles + german simultaneous translation