On Friday, March 22, 2024, we held the 6th Online Screening of Russian and Central Asian Films. For this 6th screening, we showed the film “Delighted by You (Uzbek: Maftuningman, Мафтунингман; Russian: Очарован тобой)” (1958) by director Yoʻldosh Aʼzamov, with the cooperation of the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Japan. This film, made 65 years ago, stands out from the other recent films we’ve featured in our screenings. Despite its age, it remains extremely popular in Uzbekistan, and many people from different generations still remember the songs from the film.
It is also valuable in that it shows the clothing of people and the streetscape of various parts of Uzbekistan in the 1950s and provides a fascinating insight into the country’s culture and history.
Prior to the screening, Yuji Kajiyama, coordinator of the NipCA project, gave a pre-screening commentary entitled “Uzbek Songs and Dances ‘Being Discovered’.” The storyline of “Delighted by You” is as follows: the director travels around Uzbekistan in search of talented male and female singers and dancers to play the lead roles in the new musical film “Delighted by You” now in shooting. The film crew visits important cities of the country, including Samarkand, Bukhara, and Fergana, and discovers talented singers at each location. All of them are working people, and their collective involvement in the film presents a rich and integrated cultural image of Soviet-Uzbekistan. There are also valuable images of the Navoi Theater and Tashkent Station in downtown Tashkent, as well as the landscapes of Samarkand and Bukhara, which are now registered as World Heritage Sites.
The series of Online Screenings of Russian and Central Asian Films, which continued for 6 times, came to an end with this session. It was also announced, however, that the screenings will continue under a new format in the future at the end of the event.
The NipCA Project will continue to hold film screenings in various regions of Central Asia, so please look forward to our future activities!
