Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Awesome Movie

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Another odd, exotic fable from the Soviet Union's most enigmatic filmmaker, set this time in a storybook past where, to win the hand of his true love, a penniless minstrel is forced to wander for a thousand days in search of wisdom and enlightenment. Parajanov is one of the leading figures in his country's so-called 'poetic cinema movement', which means his films are crude, heavily stylized rites of passage, thick with symbols and anachronisms. The naive, almost primitive formality recalls both the ancient, ritual folklore of its Central Asian setting and the cheap conventions of early silent film melodrama, with the Georgian voice-over narration (added on top of Parajanov's post-dubbed Azerbaijani dialogue) giving the film an added level of weirdness. On his magical quest the lovelorn troubadour encounters a blind wedding party, a despotic sultan with a toy machine gun toting harem, a pantomime tiger, and survives various other trials and tribulations, all to a nerve-racking background of wailing Middle Eastern music.

Oh God......I love Alim Qaismov and Mugham music. I've traveled in Armenia and Georgia and fell in love with the Caucasus. I looked forward to seeing this film so much.....oh god!!!! Yes the music is interesting, but the problem is simply this; it looks like a Boy George video...and one made by some guy he met in a pub. I have never, in all my life seen such an inept, appalling and entirely worthless aberration such as this. Really. It's quiet stunning how bad this is. Like a home movie from a transvestite wedding. During the dire extras documentary on Paradjabov, he makes quiet an extraordinary statement; "It is not possible to become a Director, you must be born one. And it is not enough to be born a Director...your mother must be an actress." That makes as much sense as this bag of offal. If there were truth in that, on evidence of this film I'd say the only acting Mrs Paradjanov did so, was telling her son he had talent.

This is an excellent movie as far as the artistic and aesthetic dimensions are concerned and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in experiencing the beauty of the Caucasus, or beauty as such. I do not think that there is any need to stress Parajanov's unique depiction of this beauty, after all he is acknowledged (deservedly) as one of the greatest directors of the 20th century. I am not quite sure, however, whether 'Western' audiences will be overwhelmed by Ashik Kerib (by the way 'Ashik' means 'lover', or more accurately, a person who is in love - Kerib corresponds to Turkish 'Garip'= the unfortunate). I showed it to some German friends of mine but they did not seem to be touched by it at all. 'Some' ethnological interest, if not knowledge (and passion) are indispensable. There is only one thing about Parajanov himself which I found irritating. In the documentary which is included in the Rusico edition, Parajanov himself claims to have pursued an ethnological approach in his films - as opposed to the Socialist Realism of his time which he despised so much. But how come that Parajanov says that KURDS are no Muslims when the majority of 90% of Kurds ARE (Sunnite) Muslims when he himself underlines the ethnological aspects of his movies?? How come we have a religious guy who is seen semi-nude (in Islam the exposure of a man's upper part of the body likewise constitutes sin). I did not expect a 100% accuracy watching this movie, and I still prefer it to The Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors and even to Sayat Nova despite its so many flaws (esp. the clothes and customs of the people, surely due to the 'tight budget'). The beautiful language spoken in the film is, of course, NOT Georgian - it's Azeri.

I've seen all four of Parajanov's well-known films (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, The Color of a Pomegranate, The Legend of Suram Fortress, and this), and I have to say that this is one of my favorites.Some people have said that this is a "minor" work, and that you can see evidence of a tight budget. I'd disagree with both of them. Perhaps it IS a minor work in that it is less serious than Parajanov's previous films, but it is tremendously fun to watch! The film whisks the viewer away to a fairy-tale world full of expansive landscapes and golden riches. The costumes and decorations are beautiful and the music is absolutely gorgeous (Parajanov hired a composer from the region to create the music for this film; the result is one of the best movie scores I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. It's folk music, yes, but it's folk music lifted to the realm of high art; the music almost makes this movie worth seeing just by itself).As for evidence of a tight budget... who knows? Perhaps the magnificent illusion is standing on thin ice sometimes, but the ice never breaks, which is the important thing; you never SEE that Parajanov was working under a tight budget, although sometimes you get the impression that you maybe WOULD see if the camera zoomed out just a little bit. He does use a lot of paintings to illustrate some events, but in my opinion this only adds to the film's extremely rich atmosphere.Without giving too much away, I'll say that the film has a story based on an old Eastern legend, and it progresses in episodes, much like "Legend of Suram Fortress". It is one of the peculiarities of Parajanov's style that his films do not depend on the credibility of the story or the characters (although the actors in this film are quite good); this is a fantastical fairy tale, and we understand when watching the film that fairy tales have their own sense of logic.Although "Color of a Pomegranate" remains at the top of my list of favorite films by Parajanov, "Ashik Kerib" is a delightful movie and probably the best one to start with for new-comers to this director. Watching it is in truth more like watching a musical, ballet or folk-dance than watching a film. There is a lot of excellently choreographed dancing in the film, along with excellent artwork and excellent music. If you have an interest in any of those fields, you will probably love this film.Now as for where to get it... there are currently 2 DVDs available on the market: a KINO 2-in-1-DVD featuring Ashik Kerib and Legend of Suram Fortress and a RusCiCo DVD featuring just Ashik Kerib. I advise that you get the RusCiCo DVD despite the fact that it's only slightly less expensive than the 2-in-1 KINO DVD, because the video quality on the KINO DVD is quite bad. If you want to see HOW bad, go to a website called "DVDBeaver.com" and see their DVD comparison of the two versions of Ashik Kerib; whereas RusCiCo's version is sharp with bright colours, KINO's version is blurry with muddy colours and unremovable green subtitles.This is unfortunately the only Parajanov movie that is currently available in a decent DVD release; "Color of a Pomegranate" is only available in a KINO DVD with transfer as bad as in "Ashik Kerib"'s, and "Legend of Suram Fortress" is available in the blurry KINO 2-in-1 DVD, as well as in a RusCiCo DVD with sharp image quality but an unremovable Russian voice-over (not dubbing; it's basically one Russian voice translating what the people are saying while the audio in the background becomes quieter). "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" is not available on DVD at all, to the best of my knowledge.If you liked this movie, I'd also recommend "The Adventures of Prince Achmed" (the world's first animated film, made in 1926 using only shadow puppets and tinted backgrounds and based on tales from Arabian Nights) and perhaps "The City of Lost Children" (a 1995 French film that creates its own dark fairy-tale universe).