The sun’s light is harnessed or revered, echoed in flickering city lights, a mystic’s aura, hot embers, and dazzling mirrors. With its glow, Ismailova weaves intricate strands of myth, memory and prophecy across a multiplicity of sites and temporalities. Parts of Al-Muqanna’s life and preachings are conjured and embodied anew through the words and performance of poet Jontemir Jondor. Glimpses of rituals and miracles evoke Al-Muqanna and his followers as the film moves between the shores of Amu Darya River, the burial ground of Chillpiq, the skyline of Bukhara, Soviet infrastructure complexes like the Kirov Reservoir and the solar furnace of Uzbekistan. Its many fragments intimate the deep entwinement of magic with political control and dissent, coalescing into an eerie, monumental atmosphere.

~ Ilinca Vânău

Saodat Ismailova is an Uzbek filmmaker and artist. Interweaving myths, rituality, and dreams, her films investigate the historically complex and layered culture of Central Asia which stand at the crossroads of material histories and migratory legacies. Departing from her personal history marked by growing up in the post-Soviet Uzbekistan, Ismailova reaches out to the collective dimension of memory. Her research encompasses the region’s ancestral knowledge and traditional spiritual practices as well as modern history of Uzbekistan which manifests through work on archival footage.

She initiated Davra research collective in Central Asia, 2021 and participated, the following year, to the Biennale of Venice and documenta fifteen. She also received The Eye Art & Film Prize, Amsterdam.

AS WE FADE (2024), MELTED INTO THE SUN (2024), 18 000 WORLDS (2023), BIBI SESHANBE (2022), CHILLAHONA (2022), HER FIVE LIVES (2020), HER RIGHT (2020), CHILLPIQ (2018), TWO HORIZONS (2017), THE HAUNTED (2017), STAINS OF OXUS (2016), GULAIM (2014), 40 DAYS OF SILENCE (2014), GULCHEKHRA (2014) ZUKHRA (2013), ARAL: FISHING IN AN INVISIBLE SEA (2004)