Considering that Musakov’s Abdulladzhan (1991) was dedicated to Steven Spielberg, we might suggest that these four boys embody nothing more complicated than a conflict of youthful innocence with some ominous threat—the basic workings of E.T. (1982) or War of the Worlds (2005), say. That threat, however, is best understood not through vague nationalism or warmed-over socialism, but through the other reference-point of Abdulladzhan—Tarkovskii’s Stalker (1980). Musakov leaves his boys in a simplified radiance so bright and so overexposed that it no longer looks like the skies of sunny Tashkent, but a disturbing, borderless luminosity to match the flat tonal range of Stalker’s “Zone.” Our Uzbek boys are nowhere in particular; this is a broader domain than anything international.
as Abdulladzhan - alien
as Holida-aka - Bazarbai's wife
as Bazarbai
as Rais-ota - collective farm chairman
as Yuldash
as Hasanbai
as Matkaul
as airplane pilot
as village resident
as шофер председателя
as Boltobay - Bazarbai's son
as Ivan Ivanovich Nakhlobuchko - general
as Vladimir Tsvetov - tv journalist
as Shakhlo
as Bazarbai's daughter
as Bazarbai's daughter
as militsiya officer near the gate
as collective farm deputy chairman
as Amajan - militsiya major
as village resident (uncredited)
as Bazarbai's relative (uncredited)
as mr. To Yama - representative Geisha corporation (uncredited)
as Amatjan - militsiya officer (uncredited)
as Holmirza (uncredited)
as village resident (uncredited)
as TV presenter of the program «TSN»
as Hairdresser (uncredited)
