The history of Uzbek cinema can be divided into two periods: the cinema of Soviet Uzbekistan (1924–1991) and the cinema of independent Uzbekistan (1991–present).
History
A Cinematographic Department was created in 1920 in what was then the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and in 1924 the first film studios were created in Bukhara as a cooperative enterprise between the Sevzapkino studio in Russia and the Commissariat of Enlightenment of the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic. Bukhkino, as a Russo-Bukharan cinematographic society, was also founded in 1924 and produced the first feature film in present-day Uzbekistan, The Minaret of Death by Viacheslav Viskovskii (1925), an exotic-themed film that was successful throughout the Soviet Union and was even exported abroad. Later, Bukhkino merged into Uzbekgoskino (Uzbekfilm) in Tashkent, which originally produced mostly Soviet anti-religious propaganda targeting Islam during the USSR anti-religious campaign (1928–1941).[1]
Two prominent directors in the Soviet era were Nabi Ganiev (1904–1952) and Suleiman Khodjaev (1892–1937). While Ganiev, the first Uzbek director whose movies starred a majority of Uzbek actors (in previous films, most actors were Russian), engaged in Stalinist propaganda through his movies, and survived the purges, Khodjaev became a victim of Stalin's repression. His movie Before Dawn (1933) was ostensibly a criticism of Tsarist Russia, but depicting it as a colonial power, and the Uzbeks who opposed it as anti-colonial freedom fighters, made the authorities suspicious that Khodjaev was alluding to the Soviet Union. In 1937, The Oath by Aleksandr Ulos’stev-Garf was the first talking film produced in Uzebekistan. It also marked the end of an era as, during the Great Purge, very few new films were produced.[3]
Few Uzbek films after Uzbekistan became independent have achieved international notability. According to some Russian film critics around 2009, many of the modern Uzbek movies were cheap and of low quality.[7][8] They suggested that while the quantity of Uzbek films is going up, the quality was not.[7] However, there have been several critically acclaimed films in recent years, such as Scorpion (2018), Hot Bread (2019), and 2000 Songs of Farida (2020). I’m not a terrorist (2021), Sunday (2023).[9]
With the appointment of Firdavs Abdukhalikov as general director of Uzbekkino in 2019,[10] radical reforms in the cinematography of Uzbekistan were launched. In 2020, about 200 well-known filmmakers of the republic, including Ali Khamraev and Kamara Kamalova, published an open appeal in which they called on all representatives of the industry to unite in solving the problems of national cinema and support the ongoing reforms.[citation needed] In April 2021, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev actually launched the reforms by signing Decree “On measures to raise the cinematic arts and film industry to a qualitatively new level and further improve the system of state support for the industry”. According to the decree, the National Agency "Uzbekkino" was renamed the Cinematography Agency of Uzbekistan, the House of Cinema was reconstructed, and the annual Tashkent International Film Festival was established, which became the successor to the International Film Festival of Asia, Africa and Latin America and was held in Tashkent in the fall of 2021 year for the first time after a 24-year break.[11]
^Cloé Drieu, "Cinema, Local Power and the Central State: Agencies in Early Anti-Religious Propaganda in Uzbekistan," Die Welt des Islams 50 (2010), 532-563.
^Cloé Drieu, Cinema, Nation, and Empire in Uzbekistan, 1919-1937, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2019.
Cinema CineMa Cinema of Asia Cinema of Iran Cinema Novo Kashmiri cinema Cinéma vérité Cinema of Cuba Cinema of Israel Apple Cinema Display ByTowne Cinema Third Cinema Balochi cinema Free Cinema Cinema of Africa Outdoor cinema Piccadilly Cinema Dogri cinema Nagpuri cinema List of cinema of the world Cinema of Palestine Cinema of Brazil Cinema of Algeria Cinema Rex fire Urgoo Cinema Cinema of Yugoslavia World cinema Cinema of Europe Cinema of Argentina Cinema of Moldova Secret Cinema Cinema of Armenia Cinema of Germany Cinema of Taiwan Telugu cinema Cinema of Colombia Norwich Cinema City Cine…
ma Paradiso Pashto cinema Cinema of Rajasthan Kannada cinema Cinema of Italy Marathi cinema Cinema of Latin America Cinema of the Middle East Cinema of Bihar Cinema of Croatia Cinema of Mongolia Cinema of France Sindhi cinema Cinema of Belgium Cinema of Pakistan Cinema of Azerbaijan Cinema of Nepal Bengali cinema Cinema of China Cinema of Bangladesh No wave cinema New queer cinema Cinema of Sweden L'Idéal Cinéma Jacques Tati Wallis Cinemas Cinema of Malaysia Punjabi cinema Creation Cinema Cinema of India Tulu cinema Amouda cinema Canyon Cinema General Cinema Assamese cinema Azadi Cinema Complex Odeon Cinemas Paradise Cinema (Kolkata) Kokborok Cinema Cinema of Poland Cinema of Venezuela Cinema of Mexico Cinema of the Philippines Cinema of Myanmar Taiwan New Cinema Malaysian Tamil cinema Roxy Cinema (Kolkata) Cinema of Serbia Cinema of the Czech Republic Cahiers du Cinéma Cinema of Bolivia Cinema of East Asia Bhojpuri cinema Hindi cinema Cinema of Turkey Cinema of Ukraine Digital cinema Cinema of Romania Malayalam cinema Ritz Cinema ABC Cinema, Wakefield Cinema of South India Castle Cinema Cinema X Haryanvi cinema Cinema of Indonesia Cinema of Maldives Cinema of Spain Cinema of Ur