"Kirgyztelefilm". Television and Cinema of Kyrgyzstan in the 70s - Early 80s. Part 4
TV Director. A New Profession of the 20th Century...
Brushstrokes to the Portrait
Dooronbek did not finish his third year at the medical institute. His "wanderings" through theaters and cinemas ended with a new assistant director appearing at the Frunze television studio — Dooronbek Sadyrbaev.
The first broadcast with the call signs of Kyrgyz television aired on December 5, 1958. The television of the republic was taking its first steps: the first broadcasts, the birth of first traditions...
The popular television theater of miniatures "Cabaret 13 Chairs" had not yet emerged, and the program from Moscow was still not watched in Frunze when Sadyrbaev began to independently prepare adaptations of "And It Happens" and the satirical magazine "Shibege" ("Awl")... At that time, he also started working with children. Enthusiastically engaging the kids with the idea of a television pioneer theater, he became captivated himself.
Kyrgyz television was gaining strength. The directors' arsenal included film stock. The era of "solo" experiments was over. Sadyrbaev began working with cameraman Albert Saifulin (their creative partnership lasted many years). Sadyrbaev would shoot the films "Lonely Archa" based on the story by J. Mavlyanov,
"Saira, Komuz!", over 15 hours of concert programs, "Masters of Arts of Kyrgyzstan", and he would also act himself — playing young Toktogul Satylganov in the film "Alimkan", and work as the second director on the television film "Ak-Möör".
"To my uncle, who has conveyed to our days the tale of Ak-Möör, is dedicated" ... These opening titles became a kind of tuning fork by which director M. Ubukeev structured the film, which became the first attempt by filmmakers to create a film for television. "Ak-Möör" was interesting for its acting performances. Muratbek Ryskulov, Sovetbek Jumadylov, Tatybubyu Tursunbaeva, and Bolot Boyshapaliev, with the help of Melis Ubukeev, created original images of the young Ak-Möör, the wise cruel khan Zhantai, the treacherous Banke, and the proud shepherd Bolot, all steeped in folk legends and traditions.
The director's ability to work with actors, the experience gained in cinematography, his inclination towards epic, historical themes — dramaturgically clear and defined, the mastery of experienced professionals and the enthusiasm of the young, and the camerawork of Vladimir Kotov — concise and expressive, created a poetic film that received the second prize at the television film festival in Leningrad in 1969. Kyrgyz television cinema began with a feature film made at the intersection of cinema and theater (the director, cameraman, and actors were assisted by choreographer S. Abdizhalilov)...
TV Director. A New Profession of the 20th Century... A long, sometimes painful path of formation, understanding of its possibilities, the young art of television, having absorbed the experience of its older brother — cinematography, passed in the rhythm of its century — confidently and quickly. In January 1973, based on the scriptwriting association of the State Committee of the Kyrgyz SSR for Television and Radio Broadcasting, the studio "Kyrgyztelefilm" was organized. Among its first employees was D. Sadyrbaev... By that time, having graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography, Dooronbek received the specialty of television director.
The specificity, authenticity of the setting and characters in Sadyrbaev's television films are indicated in the credits, documented. And yet...
...The events of the film about the shepherd dynasty of Tynaevs are not seen by the camera but are played out before it. Staging as the main directorial technique is not hidden. On the contrary: the Russian translation is "overlaid" on the lyrical narrative of the hero, who introduces the audience to what is happening on screen, the credits are made against a conditionally drawn background, and the music for the film is recorded by a pop-symphonic orchestra ("Land of Fathers", script by D. Sadyrbaev, S. Konurbayev, cameraman A. Saifulin).
...Students from a remote village school, mastering conversational Russian, play small everyday scenes in class. The moment of play is embedded in the very concept of the film ("Teacher of the Russian Language", script by M. Murataliev, cameraman V. Bogolyubov).
...The poetic perception of nature and humanity within it brought to the screen the sunlit glimmers in the waves of Issyk-Kul, the lace shadows of trees on the gray asphalt of the highway, the black silhouettes of tamed beautiful horses against the shimmering perspective of the sea... ("Hold on in the Saddle", script by V. Komrakov, cameraman V. Bogolyubov).
The work at the intersection of documentary and feature, of fact and fiction is interesting when the artist is deprived of the opportunity to master life material, to draw attention to a socially significant problem solely through documentary means. However, Sadyrbaev's fascination with the techniques of feature cinema in the genre of documentary-feature essay (or, as it is also called, "dramatized chronicle") is apparently explained not by this.
...Once upon a time, there was a little girl. And she was invited to act in a movie. For the role of a daughter. But they couldn't find anyone for the role of the father for a long time. That is, they found someone, but for some reason the girl couldn't "play daughter" with them... Then by chance, there was one adult — not very old at all, and she was able to play his "daughter" because he was not pretentious, was kind, and understood everything... So the girl got a father (only in the movie, of course, because in "real life" she only had her mother)...
A problem? A problem. Today's "incomplete family"...
In the feature novella "Button", filmed in 1973, Sadyrbaev (he wrote the script and dialogues himself) suddenly seemed to recall the early years of his work on TV — a joyful time when he wrote and staged programs: about children, for children, and with their participation... And the television film turned out! Because the characters and situations of this little story are recognizable with everyday details, its heroes are simple and convincing (the seven-year-old Aigul Sadykova and radio director Tursun Temirkulov performed excellently here), and the music of Shandor Kallosh — cheerful and sad — is good, and the camera of Albert Saifulin gazes with interest into the eyes of the heroes, and the director himself does not rush the events, allowing us to see, understand, and reflect... The paradox is that the sense of authenticity, the "immediacy" of what is happening in Sadyrbaev's feature "Button" is much stronger than in his documentary essays. Apparently, the resolution of the problems that concern him, the artistic thinking of Sadyrbaev-the-director is closer to such an understanding of reality — the world through play...
Sadyrbaev does not shy away from staged moments in the documentary film "Family" shot two years later (script by N. Yalymov, cameraman X. Tukhvatulin, sound engineer X. Akhmadeeva). Moreover — the main events are filmed using the method of staging, "restoring the fact". There are few reportage shots in the film. But it is precisely "Family" that seems to me a distinctly articulated, meaningful appeal by the director to construct life material on screen using the means of television cinematography. Direct interviews, filmed with a fixed camera, do not so much bring the film closer to the conditions of "tele-perception," but — this is the main thing — give the viewer the opportunity to draw their own conclusions about what they have seen and heard. And this — active participation of the viewer in the creative process, in the perception of the work of art, is the main task of a filmmaker working for television.
The television narrative about one urban family, consisting of a father, mother, and six children, begins with a kind of prologue, which is resolved in two illustrative ways: in documentary photographs, and then — in an episode shot in a home setting on film. Let's get acquainted. Father — Dadyi Imanaliev, a fitter-assembler at the Frunze Agricultural Engineering Plant. Mother — Dzhumagul Sultanalieva, a seamstress at the Frunze knitting factory. The older daughters — Sayrakul and Zinagul, factory workers, part-time students. Son Bolotbek — a student at the road transport technical school. The younger daughters — schoolgirls: Zamira, Damira, and Gulnara. A family resembling thousands of others. The heroes of the film are recognizable: the nature of their work, parental responsibilities, their cares and joys, everyday life and leisure. The concisely executed "double prologue" allows us to build the main material without reservations.
The phenomenon of reality (in this case — a specific person) is explored without convoluted directorial "twists" and effective camera angles. The character of the heroes is studied with modest means: through cinema observations, interviews with Dadyi and Dzhumagul's colleagues at work, with the heroes themselves.
The construction of micro-episodes about the husband and wife is emphasized as identical. Here Dadyi talks about himself — first on camera, then commenting on his work with colleagues in the factory workshop. The team of fitters-assemblers, in which
Dadyi Imanaliev, laureate of the State Prize of the Kyrgyz SSR, produced a knitting machine for the "Kyrgyzstan" baler. It was then exported to 20 countries around the world... Then a veteran, Trofim Alekseevich Larkin, tells about Dadyi, who remembers how young Dadyi first crossed the factory gate...
After finishing school in the village, Dzhumagul came to the city. She became an apprentice at the knitting factory, met Dadyi, and became his wife... The shift master of the conveyor, Valentina Stanislavovna Ladanova, tells about Dzhumagul, preceding our acquaintance with the heroine. And only then do we hear Dzhumagul's story — about work, about Dadyi, about the children. The small narrative of the heroine, her manner of speaking, her face and eyes (the interview is filmed in close-up) prepare the perception of that "production" information, which we later learn from the narrator.
Behind the numbers and percentages of the production characteristics of the leading worker D. Sultanalieva, we will now see both the difficulties and joys of the working woman, the mother. Twenty-three years at the factory, early fulfillment of five-year plans. How much strength has been given to work that brings joy! On Dzhumagul's chest are the Orders of Lenin and the Red Banner of Labor... Looking at her nimble hands, you understand: this woman has found her happiness — simple and real.
It would seem — what claims could there be against the authors? It turns out — there can be. Caring about the substantive side of the work, they sometimes forgot about the most important thing — that a television film is primarily a film: an image that is watched. And then the correct line of reasoning of the documentarians, striving to create a portrait of a person by combining: his story about himself and the stories of his colleagues about him (hence the stylistics of all interviews) would have been more convincing if the visual solution had been deeper, more interesting, and more precise. The sparseness, poverty of the visual range, the sluggishness of the camerawork combined with a large amount of text and synchronous interviews became a significant drawback of the film, greatly impoverishing its emotional impact. And yet the authors found life material, the theme — the life of a modern urban family, the fates of parents — first-generation workers, the fates of children who already have specialized education, an abundance of plot twists suggested by reality (and the very novelty of the theme!), led one to think of a feature film shot based on an independent literary script. A theme that television documentarians rarely address and which the feature television cinema of the republic has completely forgotten.
Godunov — a great creative victory for Minzhilkiyev. Television and cinematography of Kyrgyzstan in the 70s—early 80s. Part-3
