Ambiguous images of Soviet-Kyrgyz mountainscapes in The Sky of Our Childhood (1966)

ABSTRACT

Mountains play dominant and strategic roles in Kyrgyz cinema. They serve as an important mediator in the constructed antagonism between ‘national’ and ‘socialist’ evoked by media representations and, further, in the conventional associations between ‘nature’ and ‘national’, on the one hand, and ‘progress’ and ‘Soviet’, on the other. This article explores how mountainscapes constitute and interweave ‘Sovietness’ and ‘Kyrgyzness’ with reference to the 1966 film The Sky of Our Childhood (Nebo nashego detstva, 1966), directed by Tolomush Okeyev. The mountainscape serves not as a mere backdrop to the narrative but expresses ambiguities as a result of its transformative power.

KEYWORDS:

• Mountainscape
• frontier
• Soviet cinema
• Central Asian cinema
• Tolomush Okeyev

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The life of Chingiz Aytmatov bears the evidence of many historical developments in the Soviet Union. His father, Torekul Aytmatov, was a vydvizhenets, a member of the national elite that rose to a position of power with little formal education. He was murdered in the Great Terror of 1938. Before falling from grace, Torekul Ajtmatov had lived in Moscow and Frunze, enabling his son to become bilingual. Indeed, Chingiz Aytmatov used to write his novels in Russian first and translated them afterwards into Kyrgyz – a habit that was held against him by some of his colleagues (Florin 2015, 119).

2. The Thaw refers to the period that followed Stalinism. It began during Khrushchev’s time in office (1954–1964), but Gulnara Abikeyeva claims that the Thaw ‘arrived in Central Asia with a slight delay and affected culture from 1964 to 1972’ (2013, 16).

3. See Elizaveta Svilova dir. 1927. Bukhara. Cinematography by Yakov Tolchan, edited by Elizaveta Svilova. Moscow, USSR: Sovkino. Yuliy Rayzman dir. 1930. The Earth Thirsts [Zemlya zhazhdet]. Screenplay by Sergey Yermolinskiy, cinematography by Leonid Kosmatov. Moscow, USSR: Vostokkino. Vladimir Yerofeyev dir. 1931. Far in Asia [Daleko v Azii]. Screenplay by Vladimir Yerofeyev, cinematography by Roman Karmen and Georgiy Blyum. Moscow, USSR: Vostokfilm. Alexander Slobodnik dir. 1933. The Law of the Steppes [Zakon stepey]. Screenplay by Steppes Kananykin, cinematography by Alexander Zilbernik. Moscow, USSR: Vostokfilm.

4. For example: Michail Room dir. 1936. The Thirteen [Trinadtsat]. Screenplay by Iosif Prug, cinematography by Boris Volchok. Moscow, USSR: Mosfilm. Ėdmond Keosayan dir. 1966. The Elusive Avengers [Neulovimye mstiteli]. Screenplay by Sergey Yermolinskiy and Ėdmond Keosayan, cinematography by Boris Mokoysov. Moscow, USSR: Mosfilm. Vladimir Motyl dir. 1969. White Sun of the Desert [Beloye solntse pustyni]. Screenplay by Valentin Ezhov, Rustam Ibragimbekov, and Mark Zakharov, cinematography by Ėduard Rozovskiy. Leningrad and Moscow, USSR: Lenfilm and Mosfilm. Bolotbek Shamshiyev dir. 1972. The Red Poppies of Issyk-Kul [Alye maki Issyk-Kulya]. Screenplay by Vasiliy Sokol, Yuri Sokol, and Ashim Dzhakylbekov, cinematography by Viktor Osennikov. Frunze, USSR: Kirgizfilm.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Universität Innsbruck [2017/3/PHII-25].

Notes on contributors

Anna Ladinig

Anna Ladinig studied Slavonic at the University of Innsbruck. In her dissertation she deals with the varying localizations of Central Asian cinema. Furthermore, she is the director of IFFI – International Film Festival Innsbruck.