Asik Kerib - Storia di un ashug innamorato

Sergei Parajanov's final completed film is based on Mikhail Lermontov's short story about a poor minstrel who must travel for 1,000 days before he is allowed to marry the daughter of the local ruler. Like Parajanov's earlier "Color of Pomegranates", "Ashik Kerib" (which Parajanov dedicated to his friend Andrei Tarkovsky) makes ample use of the visuals and goes long periods without speech. Basically, it tests your attention span; a far cry from Michael Bay's movies.

I wouldn't go so far as to call this movie a masterpiece, but I like that it shows us a culture that we don't often get to see. The culture in this case is Azerbaijan. Parajanov had focused on Armenia with "The Color of Pomegranates", and Ukraine and Georgia with other movies. His refusal to incorporate socialist realism into his works caused friction with the Soviet authorities (as did his bisexuality).

In the end I recommend "Ashik Kerib". I wonder where Parajanov's career would've gone had he lived longer.

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.

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.

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.

I've seen all four of Parajanov's well-known films (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, The Color of a Pomegranate, The Legend of Suram Fortress, and this), and I have to say that this is one of my favorites.

Some people have said that this is a "minor" work, and that you can see evidence of a tight budget. I'd disagree with both of them. Perhaps it IS a minor work in that it is less serious than Parajanov's previous films, but it is tremendously fun to watch! The film whisks the viewer away to a fairy-tale world full of expansive landscapes and golden riches. The costumes and decorations are beautiful and the music is absolutely gorgeous (Parajanov hired a composer from the region to create the music for this film; the result is one of the best movie scores I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. It's folk music, yes, but it's folk music lifted to the realm of high art; the music almost makes this movie worth seeing just by itself).

As for evidence of a tight budget... who knows? Perhaps the magnificent illusion is standing on thin ice sometimes, but the ice never breaks, which is the important thing; you never SEE that Parajanov was working under a tight budget, although sometimes you get the impression that you maybe WOULD see if the camera zoomed out just a little bit. He does use a lot of paintings to illustrate some events, but in my opinion this only adds to the film's extremely rich atmosphere.

Without giving too much away, I'll say that the film has a story based on an old Eastern legend, and it progresses in episodes, much like "Legend of Suram Fortress". It is one of the peculiarities of Parajanov's style that his films do not depend on the credibility of the story or the characters (although the actors in this film are quite good); this is a fantastical fairy tale, and we understand when watching the film that fairy tales have their own sense of logic.

Although "Color of a Pomegranate" remains at the top of my list of favorite films by Parajanov, "Ashik Kerib" is a delightful movie and probably the best one to start with for new-comers to this director. Watching it is in truth more like watching a musical, ballet or folk-dance than watching a film. There is a lot of excellently choreographed dancing in the film, along with excellent artwork and excellent music. If you have an interest in any of those fields, you will probably love this film.

Now as for where to get it... there are currently 2 DVDs available on the market: a KINO 2-in-1-DVD featuring Ashik Kerib and Legend of Suram Fortress and a RusCiCo DVD featuring just Ashik Kerib. I advise that you get the RusCiCo DVD despite the fact that it's only slightly less expensive than the 2-in-1 KINO DVD, because the video quality on the KINO DVD is quite bad. If you want to see HOW bad, go to a website called "DVDBeaver.com" and see their DVD comparison of the two versions of Ashik Kerib; whereas RusCiCo's version is sharp with bright colours, KINO's version is blurry with muddy colours and unremovable green subtitles.

This is unfortunately the only Parajanov movie that is currently available in a decent DVD release; "Color of a Pomegranate" is only available in a KINO DVD with transfer as bad as in "Ashik Kerib"'s, and "Legend of Suram Fortress" is available in the blurry KINO 2-in-1 DVD, as well as in a RusCiCo DVD with sharp image quality but an unremovable Russian voice-over (not dubbing; it's basically one Russian voice translating what the people are saying while the audio in the background becomes quieter). "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" is not available on DVD at all, to the best of my knowledge.

If you liked this movie, I'd also recommend "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (the world's first animated film, made in 1926 using only shadow puppets and tinted backgrounds and based on tales from Arabian Nights) and perhaps "The City of Lost Children" (a 1995 French film that creates its own dark fairy-tale universe).