Tell Me This is Not Straight Out of Borat

1. Tuesday, February 3, 4 - 7 pm
Central Asia Program Film Screening
THE ORATOR
The Orator (Voiz) (Uzbekistan, 1998, 83 min) -- Writer and producer Yusup (Jusuf) S. Razykov (b. 1957) -- tells a witty and poetic story of Iskander, a poor cart man, who can't give up his three-woman harem and therefore happens to find himself at the centre of events that impact his marital life, family relations and his position in the society. The Orator takes place in the 1920s, at the dawn of Soviet power in Uzbekistan. The Orator is crucially concerned with gender, specifically the early-Soviet reform of Uzbek women's rights and marriage policies. Razykov said in an interview: “My favorite costume is the veil. It's much more interesting to peek under that shroud, which expresses nothing but conceals a great deal.” The Orator is a landmark not only, or even primarily, in the director's own career, but in Uzbek film generally. The film made the international festival rounds to great acclaim.
Discussion will follow the film.
Registration: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=7149
Room 108, North Building, Munk Centre for International Studies (1 Devonshire Place)
Sponsored by the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies.