Zulfat Zakirov

18-year-old Aisylu lives in a village with her mother. She suffered a severe spinal injury in an accident during early childhood; the lower part of her body is virtually paralyzed, and she gets around using forearm crutches. She loves to sing, and one day a famous Tatar producer arrives in the village—his father had once lived there, right next door to her home.

Several years before the events of the film, the protagonist was involved in a car accident and cannot get around without crutches. She lives in a village with no plans for the future, yet she possesses a rare talent: an extraordinarily beautiful voice. The monotony of village life is disrupted by the arrival of Yusuf, a pompous producer from Kazan who intends to shoot a music video there for a pop star.

«Ibn Fadlan» is a documentary feature film made by the Publishing House «Huzur» based on the «Travel Notes» of the Arab diplomat Ahmed ibn Fadlan. In 921, an embassy was sent from Baghdad to the land of Bulgar, the head of whose religious mission was Ibn Fadlan. He described his observations along the route, which ran through different countries, peoples and cultures. The path of the embassy, which lasted almost a year, was full of hardships, obstacles and dangers. It was with the arrival of the embassy in 922 that the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria as the official religion was connected. In the documentary part of the film, experts will talk about the historical background of the formation of the religious and ethnic identity of Muslims in Russia. In artistic game episodes, an attempt is made to reconstruct the realities of 921-922, where the heroes are Ibn Fadlan, the ruler of the Bulgar Almush and their entourage.