Vstrecha u staroy mecheti

Meeting at the Old Mosque by the Tajik director Sukhbat Khamidov was made in 1969. Not only is that the date of production; it‘s also what the film is about. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 showed everybody that the hopeful time of romanticism, faith in the future and attempts to reform the Communist state was over. The action of the film takes place at the beginning of the thirties, just after the civil war in Central Asia between the Red Army and the Turkish ‚basmachi‘ (bandits) ended. The main character is Viktor, a civil war hero who now is the party boss in a small Tajik town. He has to fight a small band of enemies who went to his town in the hope of finding gold and who are hiding at the old mosque. Viktor throws away paper and pen and takes up the gun once more. (Sergey Lavrentyev)