Saodat Ismailova
SWAN LAKE
Uzbekistan 2025, 29’
A two-channel film from Uzbekistan composed of footage sourced from 44 films, half made throughout the decade preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union and half in the decade that followed. Such layered content and form to reflect on political rupture and transition but also to explore the cinematic landscape of Central Asia that captured the spirit of Perestroika, or at least tried to. The title itself is a reference to Tchaikovsky’s opera, which was broadcast by the regime on state television on a loop during times of upheaval and crisis, including its own imminent dissolution. TV is also present through shots of the hypnotist Anatoly Kashpirovsky, who used to go on air in the late 1980s attempting to influence mass audiences in favour of the government (among those hypnotised was Ismailova’s grandmother). Towards the end of the film, the black-and-white fragments turn to colour and images of hope.
Saodat Ismailova is an Uzbek filmmaker and artist. She graduated from the Tashkent State Art Institute and Le Fresnoy and has since lived between Paris and Tashkent. In 2021, she initiated Davra, a transnational research collective dedicated to developing the Central Asian art scene. In 2022, Ismailova participated in the Venice Biennale and documenta 15. Her films and installations were shown at Berlinale, Rotterdam Film Festival, CPH:DOX, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, and the Swiss Institute in New York.
editor: Saodat Ismailova
Music composition: Carlos Casas
Sound post production: Marc Parazon
Color correction: Yannig Willmann
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