Posted by Jsober on: February 14 2010
This documentary, directed by Tchavdar Georgiev and Amanda Pope, and partially voiced by Ben Kingsley and Sally Field, is about a man and the wonderful work he did to preserve the avant-garde artwork of Soviet Russia.
Igor Savitski started as an artist himself but soon gave up and focused his attention on the wonders of the folk art in southern USSR just at the time when non-propaganda based art was being suppressed by the centralized government. He started collecting this folk art and soon turned his attention to the un-noted artists of the time.
He moved himself and his collection to a tiny city in the middle of the desert in what is now Uzbekistan, where he started the Nukus Museum (which was supported financially by the local government and unwittingly by the very people where were suppressing this culture).
This is a truly amazing story, exploring a period in art that is very under appreciated. The unmentioned, yet vary apparent, intent of this film is to gain support for this gem of Russian art culture that has the odds of the surrounding world stacked against it.
This film was not only wonderful, but also wildly successful as it made me aware and interested in an art that I previously knew little about. It makes me want to travel to one of the most dangerous regions of the world for the sole purpose of seeing this amazing artifact.
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