A documentary about Tajik migrants working in Russia will be shown at Pushkin House in London on May 2.
This 68-minute documentary entitled Songs of Abdul is about Abdulmamad Bekmamadov, otherwise known as Abdul, who came to Russia from Tajikistan’s Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) in search of a job.
Directed by Russian filmmaker Anna Moiseyenko, the documentary (Russia, Tajikistan, France, 2016) has been lived and perfumed by its protagonist Abdulamamd Bekmamadov.
He tells the story of his hard life in Moscow through traditional Pamirian tunes. Abdul hasn't seen his wife and children for 10 years – they live far from him in the snow-covered Pamir mountains. One episode after another, Abdul combines different scenes from his real life into a ballad – poetic story about Odysseus of our days.
The film Original language: Shugni, Tajik, Russian; subtitles: English) has been shown at several international film festivals such as États généraux du documentaire in France, "Artdocfest", the largest documentary film festival in Russia, Vyborg Russian Cinema Festival where It won a Jury Award, and at the International Documentary Film Festival "Flahertiana" in Perm.
Anna Moiseyenko was born in Ulyanovsk (USSR). She studied Philology, Journalism and Marketing at Moscow State Humanitarian University. She worked as a journalist and in 2012 graduated from the Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov School of Documentary Film and Theatre (Moscow). Anna was one of the authors of the collective film on political protests in Russia "Winter, Go Away!" which was screened at the Locarno International Film Festival, DOK Leipzig, IDFA and has won awards around the world.
