From state-of-the-art 13th-century warfare to perfumed sex, The Fall of Otrar has it all; a hypnotic epic about one of world history’s crucial battles championed by Martin Scorsese and best experienced on the big screen.
Immerse yourself in the intrigues and turmoil preceding Genghis Khan’s systematic destruction of the lost East Asian civilization of Otrar. A cornerstone of the Kazakh New Wave movement of the 1990s, The Fall of Otrar is hallucinatory, visually stunning, and packed with eye-catching (and gouging) detail; traversing an endless variety of parched, epic landscapes and ornate palaces.
Evoking the dynamic pacing of Akira Kurosawa, and the sensuousness of Tarkovsky (with some deft alternation among colour, black-and-white, and sepia film stocks), Amirkulov follows the build-up to war through the eyes of Unjukhan (Dokhdurbek Kydyraliyev), an audacious Kipchak soldier who tries to convince Khwarazm’s ruler (Tungyshpai Zhamankulov) of Khan’s imminent invasion.
With a panoramic scope that covers the intimate details of palace intrigue as well as the merciless sweep of battlefield carnage, The Fall of Otrar is a masterful imagining of the seismic changes of history - and a terrifying, electrifying feast for the senses.
Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in collaboration with Ardak Amirkulov. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The Fall of Otrar (1991) was restored in 4K from the original camera and sound negatives. Scanning was performed by ARDFILM in Almaty (Republic of Kazakhstan). Ardak Amirkulov supervised the scanning and approved the final grading. Special thanks to Daniel Bird. Restoration work was completed in 2024 by L’Immagine Ritrovata.
With an introduction by writer, curator and filmmaker Daniel Bird.
Daniel is a writer, curator and filmmaker. He directed The Hamo Bek-Nazarov Project, a film preservation and restoration programme focussed on the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Ukraine. He devised Temple of Cinema #1: Sayat Nova Outtakes, which opened Art Directions at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2019. He produced Parajanov Triptych, a programme of restored short films that have been acquired by Centre Pompidou and MoMA. He has worked with the World Cinema Project, part of the Film Foundation, on restorations of Parajanov's The Colour of Pomegranates, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and most recently Ardak Amirkulov's The Fall of Otrar. Together with Olena Honcharuk, he recently curated Ukrainian Rhapsody, a retrospective of Parajanov's films in Ukraine at Il Cinema Ritrovato.
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