On Equal Terms

Planned as a not-quite-love story but adapted to take account of the Tajik civil war which erupted during production, Khudojnazarov's second feature is a much more assertive and confident film than Brothers. The setting is Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. Feckless dreamer Daler (Madjidav), who operates an almost redundant cable-car system, impulsively carries off Mira (Spanish actress Galvez) when she is used as a pawn in a dispute over a gambling debt between her loser father and another man. Their relationship is abrasive until Mira overhears Daler fighting for her honour, but the local tradition of treating women as men's chattels is finally too much for her. The film's hard-edged romanticism is crystallised in its wonderful poetic imagery - most especially the scenes in, on and hanging from the cable-car.