The Desert of Forbidden Art (2010)

Risking being denounced as an 'enemy of the people,' Igor Savitsky rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artists' works and creates in a far desert of Soviet Uzbekistan a museum now worth millions.

Directors:

Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope

Writers:

Amanda Pope, Tchavdar Georgiev

Stars:

Edward Asner, Sally Field, Ben Kingsley

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Edward Asner	...	(voice) (as Ed Asner)
Sally Field	...	(voice)
Ben Kingsley	...	Igor Savitsky (voice)
Igor Paramonov	...	(voice)

Storyline

The Desert of Forbidden Art is a sweeping look at decades of Soviet repression of the arts and Igor Savitsky's one man campaign to rescue 40,000 works of banned politically volatile artists. In complete defiance of the regime, he creates in a remote desert of Uzbekistan one of the most important collections of Russian art.

---

Plot Keywords:

f rated | 

---

Genres:

Documentary | Adventure | Biography | Drama | History | War

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Russia USA Uzbekistan

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

11 March 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

I erimos tis apagorevmenis tehnis

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Documentary of rare quality and depth of research

No art history degree is required - this movie is story of the person, portrait of epoch - distant and the current one.

Cinematographicaly the movie is very well shot, it is well researched - never seen materials from Russia's Krasnogorsk film archives are used. Quite unusual but completely on the point is the citation from the cult Russian movie "White Sun of the Desert" (1970) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066565/.

The movie is not trying to depict the Soviet era as 70 years of horrors - it rather shows that it's up to individual to find his/her way while being artistically (as I.Savitsky himself) or politically rejected.

The editing of this movie is done more in line with Russian film-making tradition - which makes viewer to be much more emotionally involved then your standard History channel movie.

Overall it's rare case when we have a worthy subject, the passionate filmmakers and the best intentions of the authors of the movie are perfectly aligned with their capabilities to deliver.