Previously filmed 45 years ago under its original title, leading Soviet-era Kyrgyz literary figure Chingiz Aitmatov’s 1970 novella “The White Ship” gets a handsome new screen treatment in Artykpai Sunyundukov’s “Shambala.” This tale of a boy’s troubled childhood in a remote Tengri Mountains region is the Kyrgyz Republic’s Oscar submission. Its scenic beauty and production gloss certainly invite international exposure. However, some prospective outlets may find it .
Still best known abroad for his 1958 breakthrough novel, much-adapted romance “Jamila,” Aitmatov was fond of weaving folklore and mythology into his narratives of contemporary life. That tack is central here, as the titular juvenile protagonist clings to ancestral superstitions for reassurance as “progress” changes his world for the worse. Eight-year-old Shambala (Artur Amanaliev) is parentless, his mother having died, his father working as a sailor somewhere far away, possibly never to return. Nor does our hero have any playmates, living in...
Still best known abroad for his 1958 breakthrough novel, much-adapted romance “Jamila,” Aitmatov was fond of weaving folklore and mythology into his narratives of contemporary life. That tack is central here, as the titular juvenile protagonist clings to ancestral superstitions for reassurance as “progress” changes his world for the worse. Eight-year-old Shambala (Artur Amanaliev) is parentless, his mother having died, his father working as a sailor somewhere far away, possibly never to return. Nor does our hero have any playmates, living in...
- 11/10/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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