Angel on the Right Movie Review:


There's a matter-of-fact feel to this slice of Tajik life that makes this film well worth seeing--and it has a lot to say about this remote corner of the planet. And about our own lives as well.

Hamro (Pulodzoda) returns from a 10-year prison term in Russia to start over again. Back home he discovers that his mother (Miyasarova) is ill, and he decides to fix up the house so he can sell it and pay for her funeral. But his mother is only play-acting; she wants the house fixed up for very different reasons. And everyone else in the village soon has their claws into Hamro as well--from the town's mayor (Qulbobo) to a sexy nurse (Maqsumova) and the 11-year-old son (Tilavpur) he never knew he had. It seems that life here is even harder than in mafia-run Russia!

The title comes from an old Islamic fable about the two angels of conscience sitting on our shoulders--the one on the left notes all our bad thoughts and deeds while the one on the right notes the good, and it's all weighed up on Judgement Day. Yes, the film is about trying to plot a sensible course in a chaotic world--sorting out true motives from manipulative ones, attempting to do the right thing for a change, even after a life of vice. This is a deceptively simple idea, and the film is also deceptively simple; complex ideas gurgle continuously under the surface as characters' motives come to light in surprisingly tricky ways.

Writer-director Usmonov captures this universal theme beautifully in his complex and blackly funny story. There are little touches on every side that add insight into the culture. And the extremely well-played characters are dryly funny as they all go about their little plans, mixing honest attempts to earn a living with devious underhanded schemes to make money on the side. No one is above reproach here (except perhaps the nurse and the little boy), and this gives the film a tone that's both sharply observant and easy to identify with. If we're honest with ourselves.



Rich Cline

 

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