Jamilya (1968)

Джамиля

During the war, in a Kyrgyz village, a soldier's young wife falls in love with a quiet wounded man whose songs change everything.

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Year
1968
Director
Irina Poplavskaya
Starring
Natalya Arinbasarova, Suimenkul Chokmorov, Bolot Beishenaliev
Genre
Drama, Romance
Running time
1 h 17 min
Based on
The novella by Chingiz Aitmatov
Language
Russian, English subtitles
Studio
Mosfilm

About the film

The men are at the front, and the women and boys of a Kyrgyz village carry the work. Jamilya, whose husband is away fighting, drives grain to the railway station with her teenage brother-in-law Seit and Daniyar, a silent soldier home from the war with a wounded leg.

On the long night journeys across the steppe Daniyar sings, and Jamilya begins to love him. Seit watches it all, and the experience makes him an artist.

Told as the memory of the grown-up painter, the film is poetic, simple and beautiful, like the story it comes from.

Did you know?

  • The French writer Louis Aragon called Aitmatov's novella 'the most beautiful love story in the world'.
  • Chingiz Aitmatov wrote the script himself and appears briefly in the film.

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