Djamila
Yamila
1969 · Soviet Union · 83 min
- Director
- Sergei Yutkevich, Irina Poplavskaya
- Screenplay
- Chingiz Aĭtmatov
- Music
- Nikolai Sidelnikov
- Cinematography
- Kadyrzhan Kydyraliev
- Production company
- Mosfilm, Kyrgyzfilm
- Based on
- Jamilia
Cast
What it is about
A painter looks back from adulthood on his childhood in a rural Kyrgyz village, and his paintings of everyday life serve as a starting point for recalling those years. The central part unfolds during the Great Patriotic War, in what is now Kyrgyzstan. Djamila, a young woman pressured by her family into marrying Sadik, a man she does not love, watches him leave for the front soon after the wedding. While women, elderly people and children keep the fields working, she grows close to Daniyar, a soldier who has already returned from combat.
How it was made
The film adapts the 1958 novella Djamila by Chingiz Aitmatov, who also wrote the screenplay, provided the narrator's voice and appears in the cast. It was directed by Sergei Yutkevich and Irina Poplavskaya, produced by Mosfilm and Kyrgyzfilm, with music by Nikolai Sidelnikov and cinematography by Kadyrzhan Kydyraliev. The story is told in the first person, and the scenes the narrator paints act as a gateway to his memories.
Reception and legacy
The available sources offer little detail on its critical reception or awards, so any assessment should be made cautiously. Its main interest lies in bringing a Kyrgyz literary work set during the war and in rural Central Asia to the screen within Soviet cinema of the period.
Stills
Trivia
Aitmatov on both sides of the camera
The novel's author, who also wrote the screenplay, appears in the cast and provides the voice of the film's narrator.
More films by Sergei Yutkevich
Othello
The Great Warrior Skanderbeg
Lenin in Paris
The Man with the GunOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.