Kerib, der Spielmann

I was twenty years old when I saw this movie, and I remember being frozen in place. The movie was like a dream come true. As if I had been swept into another world. It was an unforgettable feeling, a mix of so many emotions all at once. I was experiencing something beyond the screen. Even now, years later, I can still feel the weight of that moment lingering in my memory.

This is Sergei Paradjanov's last film. He died after it's completion.

Ashik Kerib is based on a the poem by Mikhail Lermontov which he wrote while in exile in the Caucasus. It blends many cultures; Armenian, Georgian, Moslem, and Orthodox iconography.

Paradjanov meant the film for children, there is no dense, intellectual symbolism in it. There is also no dialogue. It was his ideal to create a visual myth. The film is incredibly beautiful, truly an experience.

One thing to note is how he makes two-dimensional icons come to life in the film. If there is a man that "paints" on celluloid, it is Paradjanov.

it is not only a beautiful adaptation. another film by a great director. or Paradjanov song of swan. it is a testimony about past. about the grace of fairy tales, about Azer traditions , about the time as a flight, about choices, humor, courage, love, as parts of a single event. a film who remains a gem for the science to remember the flavor of a lost, mythical period. a film who impress. and describe. suggest. and remains touching again and again. a film about a rhythm to live. forgotten, ignored, hidden. subtle. strange. fascinating. and a form to imagine the life. mystical. pure. useful. one of films who could be a meeting with yourself.

Another odd, exotic fable from the Soviet Union's most enigmatic filmmaker, set this time in a storybook past where, to win the hand of his true love, a penniless minstrel is forced to wander for a thousand days in search of wisdom and enlightenment. Parajanov is one of the leading figures in his country's so-called 'poetic cinema movement', which means his films are crude, heavily stylized rites of passage, thick with symbols and anachronisms. The naive, almost primitive formality recalls both the ancient, ritual folklore of its Central Asian setting and the cheap conventions of early silent film melodrama, with the Georgian voice-over narration (added on top of Parajanov's post-dubbed Azerbaijani dialogue) giving the film an added level of weirdness. On his magical quest the lovelorn troubadour encounters a blind wedding party, a despotic sultan with a toy machine gun toting harem, a pantomime tiger, and survives various other trials and tribulations, all to a nerve-racking background of wailing Middle Eastern music.

Ashug-Karibi (1988) was shown in the U.S. with the title Ashik-Kerib. The film was directed by Sergei Parajanov. (David Abashidze is listed as co-director.) The title literally means "The Strange Lover." The movie is called a Georgian or Russian movie, but it was produced in Azerbaijan. (Azerbaijan was under Soviet rule until 1991.)

The hero of the film is a talented but poor musician, who plays the traditional stringed instrument the saz (baglama), which looks and sounds like a small lute. The hero is in love with the daughter of a wealthy merchant, and she with him.

However, her father demands that she marry someone with wealth. It's agreed that the minstrel has 1001 days to make his fortune and return home to marry the young woman. That's the plot--the hero leaves his home and the rest of the film is a road movie that follows him in his travels.

This would be a fairly standard film device if Parajanov's style were like the style of other great directors. However, his style is unique. He shows us colorful paintings, dancing, and we hear Azerbaijani music. We see tableaux and he used intertitles. Color is at the center call the movie. "Colorful" doesn't capture the absolute riot of colors that we see.

This is a film that would work better on the large screen than on the small screen, but we watched it on DVD. It has a strong IMDb rating of 7.4. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 9.

P.S. Parajanov spent years in jail because of "crimes" he committed. His real offense was that he refused to make Soviet Realism films. These authoritarian officials deprived Parajanov of his liberty and deprived the world of his talent.