7 Best Movies from Tajikistan to Watch First

7 Essential Films from Tajikistan

Ranked native cinema in Tajikistan’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. The Bodyguard

   Телохранитель · 1979

   In Central Asia during the Russian civil war, a taciturn sharpshooter is assigned to guard a captured Basmachi leader, and an uneasy bond forms between hunter and prisoner amid the harsh mountain terrain. A striking Soviet Eastern.

2. 

   2. Rustam and Suhrab

   Рустам и Сухраб · 1972

   This epic dramatizes the tragic tale from the Persian Shahnameh in which the great hero Rustam unknowingly faces his own son Suhrab in mortal combat. A sweeping mythic drama.

3. 

   3. Angel on the Right

   Фариштаи китфи рост · 2002

   An unrepentant crook released from a Russian jail returns to his poor Tajik hometown to help his dying mother, only to find old debts and hard-nosed neighbors waiting to collect. A wry, humane tragicomedy.

4. 

   4. Kosh ba kosh

   Кош-ба-кош · 1993

   In war-shadowed Dushanbe, a young woman returning from Russia is nearly gambled away by her feckless, addicted father, and takes refuge with a cable-car operator as the city slides toward chaos. A lyrical, bittersweet romance.

5. 

   5. Flight of the Bee

   Парвози Занбур · 1998

   A stubborn village teacher, wronged by a boorish neighbor who builds an outhouse beside his home and eyes his wife, is denied any justice and resolves to fight back in his own quiet, absurd way. A deadpan Tajik fable.

6. T

   6. True Noon

   Qiyami roz · 2009

   In a peaceful village straddling a Central Asian border, life is upended when soldiers suddenly string barbed wire down the middle, cutting a young couple apart on their wedding day. A poignant allegory of borders and their human cost.

7. 

   7. Luna Papa

   Лунный папа · 1999

   Narrated by her unborn child, this exuberant fable follows a dreamy village girl who, pregnant after a one-night encounter, sets off with her father and shell-shocked brother to find the man responsible. A whimsical, magical-realist tragicomedy.