Dias Rahmatov

Since ancient times, on the vast expanses of Great Turan, there was a tradition of holding the folk game “kupkari” / goat‑tugging / in honor of the birth of sons. In addition to the ability to ride a horse, to be agile and brave, this game also instilled in future warriors such qualities as the ability to win and to be ready to defend their homeland… The film’s hero, the horseman Toshmurod, reveals his unique, humane character against the backdrop of the kupkari / goat‑tugging game. He lives happily with his beloved wife, Saodat, and their five sweet daughters. However, Toshmurod and his wife Saodat have a dream, and they live in anticipation of it. The action in the film “Chavandoz” escalates rapidly. Toshmurod’s childhood friend, Beshim, becomes his enemy and rival in the ulak / goat‑tugging competition/, and deprives him of his beloved horse. In the struggle against baseness and betrayal, Toshmurod ultimately emerges victorious.

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.

The plot is based on the story of a former teacher who became one of the leaders of the party leadership of Uzbekistan, involved in the "cotton business". He is accidentally killed by his own son in a shootout with assassins of party mafiosi.

Gaziboy wins the car in the lottery. He takes a lot of money from his father and goes to town.

A surreal depiction of a man’s passion for film and his attempts to save his cinema.

Tashkent, 1942. At this time, the hospitable city became a refuge for tens of thousands of people tired of hunger and cold war years. In urban stores, warehouses and markets in abundance of food and other goods. All this attracts the attention of criminals of different stripes, who in search of easy money gathered in Tashkent from all over the vast country. There are several criminal groups here. At the beginning of summer in the city there is a new gang operating with special impudence and cruelty…

One mother-in-law and seven daughter-in-laws. Traditions of one Uzbek family.