Ashik Kerib (1988)

Best movie of this year hands down!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

mixture of parable and fairy-tale, expression of Parajanov art, it is naive, seductive and strange. like an Oriental carpet. labyrinth and search of life sense. a love story in old Caucasian traditions, laws and rules. it is not a surprise. only a kind of last will. and a declaration of freedom for a new world. amusing, it is a lesson about a world. precise, it is trip in heart of a manner to understand existence. mystic, it is a speech about passion, sacrifice and ideal. small window to a garden of beauties, it is story of a young man who desires conquer the trust of his girl friend father. so, not the story is real important in this case. but the spell of images. the flavor of delicate and strong spices of a brave art maker.

Oh God......I love Alim Qaismov and Mugham music. I've traveled in Armenia and Georgia and fell in love with the Caucasus. I looked forward to seeing this film so much.....oh god!!!! Yes the music is interesting, but the problem is simply this; it looks like a Boy George video...and one made by some guy he met in a pub. I have never, in all my life seen such an inept, appalling and entirely worthless aberration such as this. Really. It's quiet stunning how bad this is. Like a home movie from a transvestite wedding. During the dire extras documentary on Paradjabov, he makes quiet an extraordinary statement; "It is not possible to become a Director, you must be born one. And it is not enough to be born a Director...your mother must be an actress." That makes as much sense as this bag of offal. If there were truth in that, on evidence of this film I'd say the only acting Mrs Paradjanov did so, was telling her son he had talent.

All the film school nerds love to rave about Parajackmeoff's films. Being very interested in film (but not nerdy enough to pay a school to teach me what to like) I decided to give it a try. I thought it would compare with the great East European directors like Kusturica, Tarr and (even though I personally hate him, I admit his movies are challenging) Tarkovsky.Well, no. This movie is closer to Ed Wood's home movies, before he could afford a real camera. It's pointless, artless, lifeless and just plain boring. "Symbolism" is its main draw, according to most confused reviewers. Haha, beware of any movie which is praised for its symbolism alone. That just means that it doesn't mean squat. My toenail is symbolic, do you want to watch a 2-hour movie about it? Next let's talk about the horribly low, low, low budget. And I don't mean "artistically, challengingly low budget" I'm talking "laughably, ridiculously amateurishly low". At one point the guy wants to show a lion but he obviously couldn't even afford a housecat, so he dressed up 2 goons in a lion suit and took the camera 100 yards away. Creative? No, stupid. And the camera itself I believe was made out of a crackerjack box with 2 holes cut in the sides. For film it seems like he used toilet paper.The women in this film are offensively ugly. They're always crying, and they look like they don't have an ounce of brains. If this were an American film, the N.O.W. would be picketing--and I would gladly join them.I can't rate this movie low enough to express my disappointment. If you're stupid enough to rent this movie even after reading the negative reviews, then you deserve to waste 2 hours of your life. At least it'll keep you off the streets.

I've seen all four of Parajanov's well-known films (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, The Color of a Pomegranate, The Legend of Suram Fortress, and this), and I have to say that this is one of my favorites.Some people have said that this is a "minor" work, and that you can see evidence of a tight budget. I'd disagree with both of them. Perhaps it IS a minor work in that it is less serious than Parajanov's previous films, but it is tremendously fun to watch! The film whisks the viewer away to a fairy-tale world full of expansive landscapes and golden riches. The costumes and decorations are beautiful and the music is absolutely gorgeous (Parajanov hired a composer from the region to create the music for this film; the result is one of the best movie scores I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. It's folk music, yes, but it's folk music lifted to the realm of high art; the music almost makes this movie worth seeing just by itself).As for evidence of a tight budget... who knows? Perhaps the magnificent illusion is standing on thin ice sometimes, but the ice never breaks, which is the important thing; you never SEE that Parajanov was working under a tight budget, although sometimes you get the impression that you maybe WOULD see if the camera zoomed out just a little bit. He does use a lot of paintings to illustrate some events, but in my opinion this only adds to the film's extremely rich atmosphere.Without giving too much away, I'll say that the film has a story based on an old Eastern legend, and it progresses in episodes, much like "Legend of Suram Fortress". It is one of the peculiarities of Parajanov's style that his films do not depend on the credibility of the story or the characters (although the actors in this film are quite good); this is a fantastical fairy tale, and we understand when watching the film that fairy tales have their own sense of logic.Although "Color of a Pomegranate" remains at the top of my list of favorite films by Parajanov, "Ashik Kerib" is a delightful movie and probably the best one to start with for new-comers to this director. Watching it is in truth more like watching a musical, ballet or folk-dance than watching a film. There is a lot of excellently choreographed dancing in the film, along with excellent artwork and excellent music. If you have an interest in any of those fields, you will probably love this film.Now as for where to get it... there are currently 2 DVDs available on the market: a KINO 2-in-1-DVD featuring Ashik Kerib and Legend of Suram Fortress and a RusCiCo DVD featuring just Ashik Kerib. I advise that you get the RusCiCo DVD despite the fact that it's only slightly less expensive than the 2-in-1 KINO DVD, because the video quality on the KINO DVD is quite bad. If you want to see HOW bad, go to a website called "DVDBeaver.com" and see their DVD comparison of the two versions of Ashik Kerib; whereas RusCiCo's version is sharp with bright colours, KINO's version is blurry with muddy colours and unremovable green subtitles.This is unfortunately the only Parajanov movie that is currently available in a decent DVD release; "Color of a Pomegranate" is only available in a KINO DVD with transfer as bad as in "Ashik Kerib"'s, and "Legend of Suram Fortress" is available in the blurry KINO 2-in-1 DVD, as well as in a RusCiCo DVD with sharp image quality but an unremovable Russian voice-over (not dubbing; it's basically one Russian voice translating what the people are saying while the audio in the background becomes quieter). "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" is not available on DVD at all, to the best of my knowledge.If you liked this movie, I'd also recommend "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (the world's first animated film, made in 1926 using only shadow puppets and tinted backgrounds and based on tales from Arabian Nights) and perhaps "The City of Lost Children" (a 1995 French film that creates its own dark fairy-tale universe).