Angel on the Right (12A)

Director: Djamashed Usmonov
Starring: Maruf Pulodzoda, Uktamoi Miyasarova, Kova Tilavpur
Tajikistan/Italy, 2003, 1 hour 29 minutes, subtitles

Told with wit, wisdom and feeling, this is a hard-edged black comedy that reveals a strange and contradictory world where Muslim and Russian cultures collide. A place controlled by brutal men, who praise the Prophet while getting hammered on vodka. Petty thug Hamro returns to his village to see his mother before she dies. He had fled to Russia 10 years before, but it’s not long before the local mayor and a gang of heavies demand that he meet the debts he left behind. An uncompromising anti-hero who’d rather take a beating than change his ways, Hamro finds he has to care for the son he abandoned and fulfill his mother’s final wish. Strongly influenced by the stark realism and dark humour of Iranian cinema, Angel on the Right (the first film from Tajikistan released in the UK), also boasts moments of metaphor, magic and surprising comedy that punctuate this knowing retelling of the parable of the prodigal son.

“Charged with exotic beauty” Sight & Sound

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