Uzbek play “Kyrk kyz” showed in Paris

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Lemusée duquai Branly ethnographic museum in Paris hosts the show of “Kyrk kyz” play (Forty girls) by famous Uzbek artist and director Saodat Ismailova, who tells the story of forty girls based on the epic of the same name.

The project was implemented with support of Aga Khan Music Fund, the National Center for Contemporary Art Le Fresnoy (France), the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Hopkins Center and the Dartmouth College (USA).

A series of the video was shot in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, as well as in one of the oldest mosques in Tashkent city. Rehearsals were held from 2017 to 2018 in Turkiston palace in Tashkent city, as well as in Almaty city.

An hour and a half performance, accompanied by video of Saodat Ismailova, reconstructs the history of the Karakalpak epic in musical and abstract form. The composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, screenwriter Ulugbek Sadikov, artist stage director Kamilla Kurmanbekova, costume designer Hilola Sher, took part in the project.

"The idea of creating the project came to me from my childhood from the stories of my grandmother – a story about forty girls who defended their lands. Unfortunately, today the end of this legend is not known. This understatement interested me. The desire to fill this understatement prompted me to create this project”, Saodat Ismailova said.