Tajikistan
Alla Rumyantseva, Alexey Rumyantsev: I met a girl

I met a girl, video, 5:52 min., 2014
 
The project is based on the well-known Tajik film Я встретил девушку (I met a girl, 1957). It is a story of an ordinary girl who has a wonderful voice and dreams of performing at the local cultural centre. However, her father forbids her to perform and packs her off to the countryside. The film is about society fighting the feudal custom of patriarchy which is an unwanted legacy from the past. The film is about the time when the aspirations of the young for self-actualization were actively encouraged. The opposite is true today – the state behaves indifferently while society is beginning to re-espouse patriarchal principles in the wake of increasing Islamisation. In the film, the story is projected onto modern Tajikistan and tries to answer some important questions: can a talented but ordinary girl realise her dream? Can she marry the man she loves? Can she do that in a backward-looking society, in a society in which religious views prevail and freedom of choice is no longer a value? (Alla Rumyantseva)