Luna Papa

The film is a pre-Enlightenment allegory, or the description of one thing under the guise of another. Certainly not social utopianism or realism. The young woman tempts the mortal laws by defying custom and the material world. She wants to follow her spirit and a craving for Shakespeare and the world of Orpheus. She is compelled to bring forth the child . . . or the longing of her soul. She suffers various hardships and adventures on her journey, sometimes comically and ineptly aided by her hapless buffoon father and idiot-savant brother. Only when she leaves the earth can the mysterious birth occur in the coupling of the female with the male.

This is a nice film and I really enjoyed it. And it's different! Have you ever watched a film with a personal narrator who is never seen? Have you ever watched a film that showed you how a bull can mess up a wedding? (I won't tell you...) It is a tragicomedy that takes you to Absurdistan. Well, life can be absurd. Didn't you know that?

I'm not sure I liked the ending, which was a bit on the surrealistic side even for this movie, but otherwise I was engaged by the humour of this movie. There aren't too many movies that surprise me repeatedly. I was afraid to leave my seat, as I figured the movie could go in any direction.

This isn't Hollywood. Instead, this was movie with peculiar, amusing and imaginative twists and turns, not to mention the odd sight gag.

I saw "A time for drunken horses" about a week before this. "Horses" was about Kurds and set in Iran on the border with Iraq, while "Luna" was set in breakaway republics of the old Soviet Union. There are lots of similarities between the movies: deep poverty, dealing with ignorant, unkind small town people, running a gauntlet of soldiers to do commerce, and so on, yet "Luna" is a great comedy and "Horses" very much a bleak drama. What you take away from both movies is that life is still very difficult and provincial in some parts of the world. Geographically, too, the films are set in locations that are not very far apart (at least from the perspective of a North American!). Woman are treated in a crappy "old world" way in both places, too.

Moritz Bleibtreau as Nesreddin, the brother, is brilliant. Perhaps he is the reincarnation of Harpo Marx.

If you're sick of Hollywood formula films and you want to have a good time, I'd recommend this one.

I may recommend this movie for those who has a great enjoy of life. The music in the movie is the music of life. The movie itself shows the truth in the life, the truth which is difficult to correct or let me say, to change. Th life in the deserts like Farkhor is very difficult. I myself spend my life in such conditions. For those who never experienced this life maybe the movie is a bit funny. But for me, I didn't notice any comedy, but rather tragedy. Yes, the tragedy of the usual lie of Tajiks.

The movie is in Tajik/Russian language. However it is written that the movie is in Russian only.

Daler Nazarov is great in choosing composition. Long live Bakhtiyar Khudaynazarov!!!

I was finally able to catch this movie after missing it here at the film festival a couple of years ago. I must say that the wait was certainly worth it. The visual presentation of the movie is spectacular and the lovely endearing yet perverse story line only further adds to the experience of watching. The characterizations are wonderful and the manic nature of most of the characters brings an energy to the story. My favourite scenes were the "kidnap" ventures and the wonderful shots of the water - the colours are breathtaking. I will certainly have to see this one again before it disappears!!