Covering Media

Filmmakers Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope on location in Uzbekistan, photograph by Ernest Kurtveliev.

The Desert of Forbidden Art (2010/2011)

Opened: 03/11/2011 Limited

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Genre: Documentary (English and Russian w/English subtitles)

Rated: Unrated

Synopsis

The incredible story of how a treasure trove of banned Soviet art worth millions of dollars is stashed in a far-off desert of Uzbekistan develops into a larger exploration of how art survives in times of oppression.

During the Soviet regime, a small group of artists remain true to their vision despite threats of torture, imprisonment and death.

Their plight inspires young Igor Savitsky. He pretends to buy state-approved art but instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artist's works and creates a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB. Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from the same authorities who are banning it. Savitsky amasses an eclectic mix of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917, encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin. They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions.

Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Ed Asner voice the diaries and letters of Savitsky and the artists. Intercut with recollections of the artists' children and rare archival footage, the film takes us on a dramatic journey of sacrifice for the sake of creative freedom. Described as "one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century Russian art" and located in one of the world's poorest regions, today these paintings are worth millions, a lucrative target for Islamic fundamentalists, corrupt bureaucrats and art profiteers. The collection remains as endangered as when Savitsky first created it, posing the question whose responsibility is it to preserve this cultural treasure.

Director's Statement

We were filming in Tashkent, Uzbekistan just finishing a two year production on grassroots reformers in the former Soviet Union. Neither of us had ever been to Central Asia before and tales of Uzbekistan's ancient Silk Road and the fabled blue-tiled domes of Samarkand, one of ancient world's most dazzling capitals, sparked our interest. But then we were told of a cultural treasure from our own time, a museum of Soviet era forbidden Avant-Garde art in a far off desert at the extreme Western border of Uzbekistan. The improbability of the story was arresting: an amazing art collection, created single-handedly by one penniless man, in the desert, a poor region, in an Islamic country suspicious of art created by their former colonizers.

We have both been drawn to stories about stubborn, unsung people with vision who challenge the boundaries of their times. We first met as professor and student at University of Southern California's film school. Our partnership on equal footing across generations might have seemed unlikely. But we complimented each other perfectly. Having grown up in the former USSR, Tchavdar had his roots in Eastern European and Russian culture, while Amanda's strength came from a background in teaching and making documentary films on art and the dynamics of creativity.

What we discovered in the stories surrounding the Savitsky Collection, was a constellation of indomitable idealists. First there were the artists like Yevgeny Lysenko whose blue bull painting Fascism Is Advancing was labeled anti-Soviet. His creativity landed him in a mental hospital. There was the original Collector who defied a totalitarian regime and amassed 40,000 artworks for his museum often by giving IOU's promising payment in 10 or 12 years. And finally we met the current Museum director, Marinika Babanzarova, who has fought off government bureaucrats and art sharks as they tried to raid the prizes of the Collection, and Islamic fundamentalists ready to destroy the art just as they did the great Bamiyan sculptures in Afghanistan.

We realized we had the opportunity in this story to explore 80 years of an ever-changing relationship between the Islamic world and the West through the lens of artists who lived in these times.

Unfortunately, due to political and economic conditions in Central Asia today, the Savitsky Collection could cease to exist in its present form at any time. We hope this film will function as an advocacy tool and a catalyst to protect this unique 20th century cultural institution.

--Amanda Pope & Tchavdar Georgiev