MUSE Film and TV

In Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan, there is a virtually unknown art museum. It was founded in 1966 by Igor Savitsky in Nukus, the region’s capital. When his archaeology career brought him to the region in the 1950s, he found secret stashes of Russian avant-garde paintings that dated back to 1917. He took it upon himself to save 40,000 of them that were in danger of confiscation and/or destruction by the Soviet government, which allowed only Socialist realism that depicted the “thrill of being a Soviet citizen.” In the Soviet Union where culturally varied regions were forcefully homogenized, artist’s risked their lives to preserve their cultures and the reality of peasant life through paint. Those who were not successful in hiding their work were sent to Gulags, mental hospitals, or were executed. Savitsky duped the government into giving him seed money by showing them only what would have been state-approved art.

“The Desert of Forbidden Art” is a documentary that tells this story in interviews with art historians, Marinika Babanazarova (the director of the Nukus museum), and sons and daughters of the artists. It does an excellent job of fitting in a staggering number and variety of paintings, and lingering long enough for us to really see them. The true star of the film, however, is Babanazarova. She has an entrancingly graceful presence. Her pride and knowledge of the paintings shine as if they were each her own. She has run the museum since Savitsky’s death in 1984 from overexposure to toxic restoration chemicals. One regrettable omission in the documentary is a more urgent tone in describing the current danger the museum faces, which only came to light after the credits.

After the screening, directors Alexandra Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev described the controversial nature of this seven year project. The Uzbek government has shown no support for the film and in fact prohibited Marinika Babanazarova from attending a screening of the documentary at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. After Uzbekistan achieved independence in 1992, the co-directors explained, a new national narrative was written. This narrative apparently doesn’t have room for the abstract and multi-cultural sensibility so prominently displayed in the Nukus museum. Since Savitsky’s death the Uzbek government has been the legal owner of the museum. The mission of the film is to persuade the Uzbek government to adopt a more progressive attitude towards preserving the museum which faces devastation by both the excessively dry climate and Islamic fundamentalists who may take on same views of the “forbidden” art as Stalin once did.

“The Desert of Forbidden Art” is now playing at Cinema Village

Voice overs of Savitsky and other artists are performed by Ben Kingsley, Ed Asner, and Sally Field.

Running time: 80 minutes

Directors: Alexandra Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev

Review by Christiana Cefalu