Bolotbek SHAMSHIEV
Болотбек ШАМШИЕВ
Bolotbek CHAMCHIEV
USSR (Kyrgyzstan), 1971, 100mn 
Colour, fiction
Alye maki Issyk-Kulya
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Алые маки Иссык-Куля

 

 The Red Poppies of Issyk-Kul

 Les Pavots rouges d'Issyk-Koul

 
Directed by : Bolotbek SHAMSHIEV (Болотбек ШАМШИЕВ)
Writing credits : Ashim JAKYPBLEKOV (Ашим ДЖАКЫПБЛЕКОВ), Yuri SOKOL (Юрий СОКОЛ)
Based on the novel from A. Sytin "The Smugglers of the Tian Shan"
 
Cast
Suimenkul CHOKMOROV (Суйменкул ЧОКМОРОВ) ...Karabalta
Aliman DZHANGOROSOVA (Алиман ДЖАНГОРОЗОВА)
Sovetbek JUMADYLOV (Советбек ДЖУМАДЫЛОВ) ...Bayzac
Boris KHIMICHEV (Борис ХИМИЧЕВ) ...Kondrat Kokorev
Amina UMURZAKOVA (Амина УМУРЗАКОВА) ...Kempir
 
Cinematography : Manas MUSAYEV (Манас МУСАЕВ), Viktor OSENNIKOV (Виктор ОСЕННИКОВ)
Production design : Aleksey_2 MAKAROV (Алексей_2 МАКАРОВ)
Release Date in Russia : 16/04/1973
 

Plot synopsis
Based on the novella The Smugglers of the Tian Shan, this popular Kyrgyz film takes place in the 1920s and uses the basic formula of the Red Western: a Bolshevik superman fights a violent native gang of opium traffickers.
Somewhere in Kyrgyzstan in the 1920s, the pro-Soviet guard Karabalta (‘Black Axe’) detects secret paths in the mountains used by smugglers to transport opium across the Soviet border.
Meanwhile, a strange man named ‘Golden Mouth’ offers to accompany a patrol unit led by the Russian commander Kondraty, promising to help find these smugglers and their camp. A mission to find the opium cache is complicated by kidnappers and other disasters.
Bolotbek Shamshiev’s thriller has a plot that follows the basic formula of the Red Western: a larger-than-life Bolshevik Superman fights a violent native gang operating under the leadership of a cunning and ruthless criminal patriarch. In The Red Poppies of Issyk-Kul, an ascetic, quiet Superman - as usual - embodies the film’s positive moral core. The film is distinguished by superb camera work, praising the beauty of Kyrgyzstan’s wild nature in lavish widescreen images.
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2011
- Era New Horizons IFF, Wroclaw (Poland), 2011