Dzhamiliya / Jamilya (1972) [Repost]

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Dzhamiliya / Jamilya (1972) [Repost]

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A beautiful movie called "Jamilya" arrived from Russia - very obviously with love. In its simplicity, sensitivity and lyrical flow, this deeply-felt Soviet-sponsored drama and its exotic locale are refreshingly remote from the sex, strife and gore cluttering Fun City screens.

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Dzhamiliya / Jamilya (1972) [Repost]

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The very setting, a tribal village in Kirghizia, dwarfed by towering peaks on the Soviet-Chinese border, is a fascinating novelty. So are the expressive Oriental faces of the cast, speaking their native Turkic (with good English titles).

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The story, by Chinghiz Aitmatov, a Turkic author, unfolds the wonder and anguish of a growing boy as he watches the furtive love of two adults he adores. These are his vivacious, lonely sister-in-law, Jamilya, whose indifferent husband is away at war, and a convalescent soldier helping the villagers feed grain to a railroad line. World War II, in a sharp pinpoint of irony, remains far, far away.

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But the exquisite direction of Irina Poplavskaya pulls in the human drama closely and touchingly, wisely holding to the viewpoint of the impressionable boy. And since the lad, played with earthy conviction by Nasredin Dubashev, is also a budding painter, Miss Poplavskaya and her superb photographer have a visual field day.

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The craggy panoramas, the foaming wheat fields and the personal drama are effectively intercut with primitive color sketches, as the general footage subtly shifts from sepia to black and white. It is a trick—most pictures would gum it up—that works beautifully. So, for that matter, do the performances of Natalya Arinbasarova and Suimenkul Chkmorov, as the lovers, and a striking musical score with folk-tune flavoring. "Jamilya" is a joy.

NYTimes

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Dzhamiliya / Jamilya (1972) [Repost]

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I do remember quite vividly having seen this film in black and white on TV, around 1970 – I was a teenager at the time and never forgot that enigmatic title, "Dzhamilya". As I happened to read Chinghiz Aitmatov's original novel, a few years ago, every single page of it reminded me the stunning visuals of the whole movie. In his foreword to the book, French writer Louis Aragon described "Dzhamilya" as perhaps the most beautiful love story ever told…

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So there's no real surprise that I probably fell a bit in love, at age 14, of the young leading actress, Natalya Arinbasarova, Andrei Konchalovsky's wife, who had already used her, a couple of years before, in his directorial debut, "The First Teacher" (1966), after a story by the same author and also set in the remote Kirghiz countryside, near the Chinese border – another jewel for the audience who are not afraid of anthropological truth in film and prefer poetic inspiration to action movies. There's definitely something of both Andrei Tarkovsky's and Terrence Malick's visions about these two underrated Russian masterpieces of the late 1960s, i.e. "Dzhamilya" and "The First Teacher" (which I strongly recommend to see as well).

IMDB Reviewer

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Dzhamiliya / Jamilya (1972) [Repost]

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Special Features:
- Interview with director I. Poplavskaya and leading actress N. Arinbasarova;
- Photo album “paintings of actor and artist S. Chokmorov";
- Filmographies;
- Photo album;
- Coming soon on dvd

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Dzhamiliya / Jamilya (1972) [Repost]

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