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.
- Director
- B. Shamshiev
- Country of production
- USSR
- Year
- 1972
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2011
- Length
- 99'
- Medium
- 35mm
- Original title
- Alye maki Issyk-Kulya
- Language
- Russian
- Production Company
- Studio Kyrgyzfilm
- Sales
- Gosfilmofond
- Screenplay
- Yuryi Sokol, Vasilyi Sokol, adaptation of a short novel by Aleksandr Sytin
- Cinematography
- Viktor Osennikov
- Production Design
- Aleksei Makarov
- Music
- Mikhael Marutaev
- Cast
- Suimenkul Chokmolov