Luna Papa

With Bratan (1991) and Kosh ba kosh (1993) Bakhtiyar Khudoynazarov already stole the hearts of Rotterdam audiences. Luna Papa, his third feature, is a humorous and fairy-tale story about love. ‘The love of a mother for her son, of Icarus for the son, and of a worm for the apple’, according to Khudoynazarov. The beautiful sets contribute to the supernatural mood of the film, as a metaphor for the situation in Central Asia, where the clash between the modern era and tradition have turned reality into something fantastic. In a small village near Samarkand lives the eccentric Bekmuradova family: Mamlakat (17), her father Safar and her brother Nasreddin, who went mad in the Afghan war. This desolate corner of the world is filled with dark figures: the only ones to maintain law and order are a couple of ex-soldiers who drive around in an old tank. Mamlakat is mad about the stage and dreams of becoming an actress. One bright moonlit night, she is seduced by a beautiful and mysterious actor, who leaves her behind, pregnant. Together with a girlfriend, she travels to the city for an abortion, but just before the operation, the old doctor dies in a bizarre way. She has to admit to her father that she is pregnant. So the family set off – travelling through Central Asia in search of the father of the child, to save the family face.