The Fall of Otrar (1992)
Australian Premiere - 4K Restoration
“The film restoration of the year. The new 4K restoration of Ardak Amirkulov’s intricate historical epic…will hopefully help this monumental film to reach as many people as possible.” – Film Comment, New York
“Ardak Amirkulov’s staggering historical epic (co-written by Aleksei German) concerns the intrigues and turmoil preceding Genghis Khan’s systematic destruction of the lost East Asian civilization of Otrar. The movie that spurred the extraordinary wave of great Kazakh films in the 1990s, The Fall of Otrar is hallucinatory, visually resplendent, and ferociously energetic, packed with eye-catching (and gouging) detail and traversing an endless variety of parched, epic landscapes and ornate palaces. But this is also one of the most astute historical films ever made, its high quotient of gore grounded in the bedrock realities of realpolitik: when the Kharkhan of Otrar is finally brought before the Ruler of the World, he could be facing Stalin or, for that matter, any number of latter-day CEOs. A movie that has everything, from state-of-the-art 13th-century warfare to perfumed sex, The Fall of Otrar is truly a one-of-a-kind experience”. – New York Film Festival notes to accompany the world premiere of the 4K restoration, Lincoln Centre, NY, October 2024
Introduced by Rob Hughes at Ritz Cinemas and Lido Cinemas.
Rating
Unclassified 18+
Duration
156 min
Language
Kazakh, Mandarin Chinese, Mongolian (English subtitles)
Cast
Dokhdurbek Kydyraliyev, Tungyshpai Zhamankulov, Bolot Beyshenaliev
Director
Ardak Amirkulov Kazakhstan
