Central Asian / Caucasian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The USSR will be in another list, just to keep things simple.
The tally is:
Afghanistan 6
Armenia 3
Azerbaijan 3
Georgia 9
Kazakhstan 6
Kyrgyzstan 5
Tajikistan 2
Mongolia (EDIT: ADDED LATER) 2
None, as far as I can tell, from either Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan.
If you haven't seen many films from these countries, you're not the only one!
The tally is:
Afghanistan 6
Armenia 3
Azerbaijan 3
Georgia 9
Kazakhstan 6
Kyrgyzstan 5
Tajikistan 2
Mongolia (EDIT: ADDED LATER) 2
None, as far as I can tell, from either Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan.
If you haven't seen many films from these countries, you're not the only one!
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- DirectorAshok NandaJawed WasselStarsBaktash ZaherMariam WeissYunis AziziA young Afghan-American on a journey of "self-discovery".Afghanistan
- DirectorSiddiq BarmakStarsMarina GolbahariZubaida SaharKhwaja NaderAfter the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a pre-teen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.Afghanistan
- DirectorAtiq RahimiStarsAbdul GhaniJawan Mard HomayounSher AgahElderly Dastaguir and his newly deaf 5-year-old grandson Yassin hitchhike and walk, but mostly walk, as they make their way to the coal mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. Dastaguir must tell Murad that the rest of their family were all killed in a recent bomb attack.Afghanistan
- DirectorSiddiq BarmakStarsPeter BussianJoe SubaFawad SamaniTwo American soldiers wounded in the Afghanistan desert stumble across a Russian tank which has a group of Afghanis living inside.Afghanistan
- DirectorAnwar Hajher16 Days in Afghanistan is a documentary that documents the state of Afghan people after the fall of the Taliban.Afghanistan
- DirectorSonia Nassery ColeStarsHaji Gul AserSonia Nassery ColeLeo SolomonThe Mansouri family opens up a new restaurant after the fall of the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan only to be subsequently targeted by factional Taliban elements.Afghanistan
- DirectorVigen ChaldranyanStarsMichael PoghosianKaren DzhanibekyanJean-Pierre NshanianToday, Mel Divan is a successful American businessman with a terminal illness. But long ago he was an infamous criminal who escaped from a mental institution in Communist Armenia. With the rise of capitalism, Mel returns to Armenia to make good on a promise to deliver the bounty of his robbery to the widow of a fellow thief. Mel plans on spending only enough time in Armenia to locate the widow. But nostalgia and fate drive him, as the same mental institution from which he escaped is now on the auction block. Mel buys it and finds refuge in running the psychiatric hospital while living among its eclectic residents and helping each in a unique way. Mel will live his final days as a saint provided he can keep one step ahead of the Chief Psychiatrist and a local Mob Boss.Armenia
- DirectorHiner SaleemStarsRomen AvinianLala SarkissianIvan FranekIn a remote, isolated Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia, Hamo, a widower with a pitiful pension and three worthless sons, travels daily to his wife's grave. There he meets the lovely Nina, who is communing with her late husband. The two are penniless--she works in a local bar that is about to close down, while he has been forced to start selling his meager possessions. All seems hopelessly bleak, yet when Hamo begins to court Nina, their unexpected love revitalizes them.Armenia
- DirectorRuben GevorkyantsVahe KevorkovStarsTonino GuerraScriptwriter, author, artist, sculptor, dramatist, architect, journalist, constructor, philanthropist, pedagogue, metalworker, inventor, public figure, agriculturist, gardener, chemist and simply a good person. He also plays football and the saxophone. In scale and versatility he is comparable to Leonardo da Vinci, but it is known that Leonardo could not play the saxophone, did not play football and did not write scripts. Tonino Guerra is the last representative of the Italian Renaissance.Armenia
- DirectorFarid GumbatovStarsAda RogovtsevaLyubov TolkalinaAndrey ChernyshovAfter her husband's death, a widow returns to Moscow with her mother-in-law, unaware that a depressed passenger is determined to blow up the train en route.Azerbaijan
- DirectorShamil NajafzadeStarsRasim BalayevVidadi GasanovYuliya PeresildAzerbaijan
- DirectorIlgar SafatStarsZuzu BejashviliMelissa PapelVaqif IbrahimogluThe story is set in Baku. A famous photographer has to choose between accepting a valuable job offer in Africa or marrying his fiancee - a young , talented sculptor inspired by images of ritual dances. The photographer decides to accept the job offer and - once again - postpones his wedding. During the ensuing quarrel, the photographer and his fiancee have a car accident along the road which leads to the ancient cave city. They later find themselves in a police precinct, where the photographer has to come to terms with his dread of women or he will not leave the precinct alive.Azerbaijan
- DirectorNana DzhordzhadzeStarsPierre RichardNino KirtadzeMicheline PresleThe story of Pascal Ichak, a larger-than-life French traveller, bon vivant, and chef, who falls in love with Georgia and a Georgian princess in the early 1920s. All is well until the arrival of the Red Army of the Caucasus, as the Soviet revolution that has swept Russian comes to Georgia. Told as a flashback from the present, as a French-Georgian man whose mother was Pascal's lover translates his memoirs for Pascal's niece.Georgia
- DirectorZaza UrushadzeStarsZura BegalishviliNino KoberidzeNino LejavaThe head of the security service is faced with a choice: to continue serving the state or to give up everything in order to save his sick son.Georgia
- DirectorNana DzhordzhadzeStarsNutsa KukhianidzeEvgeniy SidikhinShalva IashviliThe summer adventures of teenaged Sybilla, who falls in love with a middle-aged father while being romanced by his teenaged son.Georgia
- DirectorNodar ManagadzeStarsAmiran ChichinadzeDimitri JaianiNino KoridzeA metaphoric depiction of post-Soviet countries. The artificial environment of the USSR, built on an ideology that was not possible outside of theory has crumbled, but in its place the new cherished "freedom of democracy" remains merely the hollow words of concept. The film takes place in a vast building of a train station, resembling an aquarium. There the lost masses are ruled by chaos. The terror and misunderstandings of their country has been replaced by senseless and heartless bureaucracy. Having lost all hope, the travelers seek to abandon their country and find a new home, but the trains that come rushing through their station are not stopping. We meet people from all walks of life: a couple of lovers; a group of musicians; a priest; a thief; a banker carrying a briefcase of money; models walking idly on a podium; unhappy families; thieves, prostitutes. All seem trapped and cannot leave. But there is a tiny hope that resides in the eyes of the heroes of the film - twin girls, full of the wonder of life, who are waiting for the migration of the angel.Georgia
- DirectorLevan ZakareishviliStarsGiorgi MaskharashviliEka NijaradzeRusiko KobiashviliA young filmmaker named Dato has no money to make a movie, so he hangs out drinking and brooding all day in the capital of the former Soviet republic, Georgia. He is also writing a screenplay. Excerpts from his script, shot in black-and-white, are cut into his story. All the stories, including the framing story about Dato and his friends, are interwoven so that they become one long narrative about contemporary life in Georgia.Georgia
- DirectorAleko TsabadzeStarsArtyom TkachenkoKonstantin KhabenskiyPyotr MironovA big Russian city- not necessarily Moscow, but the kind that is bustling with all types of life including criminal so the police are not without business. A young agent by the name of Nikolay, whose ancestors on his mother's side are Georgian, walks into the department which is busy with the investigation of a murder committed by a mysterious blind killer. His intuition leads him to a group of people whose destiny was broken by the Chechen War. This peaceful town finds its sinister inside, and Nikolay's noble impulses runs into the cruel and corrupt reality.Georgia
- DirectorDito TsintsadzeStarsEwen BremnerLevan DoborjginidzeMarika GiorgobianiGeorgia
- DirectorGeorge OvashviliStarsTedo BekhauriTamar MeskhiArchil TabukashviliA young refugee and his mother flee war and ethnic cleansing in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, leaving his father behind. After arriving in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the young boy encounters difficulties with his mother, and begins a lonely journey back to Abkhazia to find his father.Georgia
- DirectorLevan KoguashviliStarsGuga KotetishviliIrakli RamishviliGiorgi KipshidzeA drug addict is being threatened by jail if he doesn't set up his childhood friend's son.Georgia
- DirectorArdak AmirkulovStarsDokhdurbek KydyraliyevTungyshpai ZhamankulovBolot BeyshenalievThis historical epic charts political intrigue among the Kipchaks, a confederation of tribes on the steppes of central Asia, before they were overrun by Genghis Khan.Kazakhstan
- DirectorSergei BodrovIvan PasserStarsKuno BeckerJason Scott LeeJay HernandezA historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan, where a young man is destined to unite the country's three warring tribes.Kazakhstan
- DirectorSergei BodrovStarsTadanobu AsanoAmadu MamadakovKhulan ChuluunThe story recounts the early life of Genghis Khan who was a slave before going on to conquer half the world in 1206.Kazakhstan
- DirectorSergei DvortsevoyStarsAskhat KuchinchirekovTolepbergen BaisakalovSamal YeslyamovaOn the steppes of Kazakhstan, Asa lives in a yurt with his sister Samal, her husband Ondas, and their three children. Ondas is a herdsman, tough and strong. It's dry, dusty, and windy; too many lambs are stillborn. Against this backdrop, Asa, a dreamer who's slight of build and recently finished with a stint in the Russian Navy, tries to establish a life on the steppes. He, his friend Boni, and Ondas call on Tulpan, the only single girl in the area. The men talk to her parents while she listens out of sight. Her answer and Asa's later trips to talk to her form an arc of hope against the harsh land. Is this the place of Asa's dreams? What about the other lambs?Kazakhstan
- DirectorErmek TursynovStarsGulsharat ZhubyevaTurakhan SadykovaErzhan NurymbetA woman is led by her family to her new husband's home, to live with, presumably, his elderly mother and younger brother. Despite being forced into the marriage, she discovers that he is not such a bad catch after all but domestic bliss does not last long.Kazakhstan
- DirectorAkan SatayevStarsAndrey MerzlikinTungyshpai ZhamankulovAyganim SadykovaThe main character, his wife and small son lose their way and become stuck on a country road. As a result, they have to spend the night in their car. The following morning, the main character awakens alone, his wife and son having mysteriously disappeared. His preliminary searches bring the hero to a small lonely house, in which an old man and a young woman live. It seems that these strange tenants know about him and his family but try to hide their knowledge. For what reason?Kazakhstan
- DirectorAktan Arym KubatStarsMirlan AbdykalykovAdir AbilkassimovMirlan CinkozoevIn a Kyrgyz village, five older women adopt an infant foundling. Jump ahead about 12 years: the boy, Beshkempir, is entering puberty, the age, his granny says, when life goes berserk. He plays with friends, horsing around, sniggering about sex, going to an outdoor movie. He works, fishing and making bricks of mud. And, he's starting to notice girls. He and his best friend fight, and he learns to his consternation that he's a foundling. A death in the family pushes Beshkempir even faster toward adult roles: he must brush tears from his eyes, lead a funeral procession, and reconcile with his friend. Then, he borrows a bicycle and calls on Aynura: courtship begins.Kyrgyzstan
- DirectorAktan Arym KubatStarsMirlan AbdykalykovDzylykcy DzakypovSergey GolovkinA teenager in a Kirgiz provincial town passes the time between his work at the railroad and hanging out with his friends before he has to join the military service.Kyrgyzstan
- DirectorNurbek EgenStarsNatacha RégnierBolot TentimyshovTynar AbdrazaevaThere is great excitement in Aidar's home one fine day when he comes back from Paris to his mountain village with a charming French girl called Isabelle. Aidar has changed but everything at home has remained the same. Lake Issyk-Kul sparkles silver and turquoise, the air is so pure it tinkles and the snow-covered summits of the mountains sparkle in the sun. Isabelle cannot understand how Aidar could leave such beauty behind and why he cannot tell everyone that she is his fiancee. But shades of the past, embodied in the grim figure of the local postman, give Aidar no rest. A threat hangs over the couple's love.Kyrgyzstan
- DirectorMarie-Jaoul de PonchevilleStarsAlbina ImashevaElim KalmouratovHélène PatarotThis is a love story set in the steppes of Central Asia of today. Temür a thirty year old Kazakh decides to start life again in his ancestral village in the Kyrghyz Mountains. He discovers soon after his arrival that he is a misfit in this settlement of old conservative Islamic men,some women and children. The only ray of hope for him is Amira a young married woman who waits in frustration for her absentee husband - a Mujahideen. Temur watches sorrowfully as the individual village stories unfold at the same as he tries to help the community out in any way he can. In this way he comes closer to Amira and Taib, her young brother-in-law. In a dead end situation the lovers decide to leave the settlement and travel to a place that would hold out with their dreams.Kyrgyzstan
- DirectorAktan Arym KubatStarsAktan Arym KubatTaalaikan AbazovaAskat SulaimanovThe main hero of the film is an electrician with a far greater effect on the people around him than his job defines. He is the last link in a huge energetic system and he becomes the binding bridge between the geopolitical problems of post-soviet space and the common people. The economic devastation of the country had an enormous impact on the industrial workers and yet despite the upheaval, these people did not seize to love and suffer, to have and be friends and to enjoy their lives. In particular our resilient electrician, who possesses a wonderful and open heart. He not only brings electric light (which is often out) to the lives of the inhabitants of this small city, but he also spreads the light of love, loyalty, life and mainly laughter.Kyrgyzstan
- DirectorBakhtyar KhudojnazarovStarsChulpan KhamatovaMoritz BleibtreuAto MukhamedzhanovThe unborn child of Mamlakat (Khamatova) is telling her story. She is 17, beautiful and vivacious, and dreaming secretly of becoming an actress. She lives with her father and brother (Bleibtreu) in a small village in Central Asia. One night she is seduced by an actor from a traveling troupe, who poses as a friend of Tom Cruise, and makes her pregnant. She tries to abort, but her father and brother become determined to find the seducer, setting in motion a cascade of comic adventures.Tajikistan
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsDaler NazarovMariam GaibovaFarzona BeknazarovaOn his fortieth birthday, a man engineers a revolt against himself. He telephones his lovers -- all four of them -- and arranges to meet them at his dance school that afternoon. The women are shocked to discover that they have been sharing the affections of the same man. He arrives and tries to explain his actions. He has realized that time is limited for each of us. Total honesty is the only answer. One by one we review the beginning of each affair. The man and his lovers discuss passion, possession, time. How love blossoms from even the smallest seed. He gives each woman a parting gift -- a stopwatch -- and asks them to measure each minute of true love that they experience from now on. The women leave. The man is alone. Later, the fourth woman calls him and they arrange to meet at her house, where he finds the tables turned: he is now one of four lovers. Unable to handle the new situation, the men argue and depart. The man is left alone again...Tajikistan
- DirectorByambasuren DavaaLuigi FalorniStarsJanchiv AyurzanaChimed OhinAmgaabazar GonsonWhen a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.Mongolia
- DirectorByambasuren DavaaStarsBatchuluun UrjindorjBuyandulam DaramdadiNansal BatchuluunThe little Nansal finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend against all rejections of her parents.Mongolia