Manaschi

In his latest tragicomedy, a multi-layered feast of storytelling, Hamid Ismailov interrogates the intersection between tradition and modernity.

A former radio-presenter wrongly interprets one of his dreams and thinks that he has been initiated into the world of spirits as a manaschi, one of the Kyrgyz bards and healers reciting Manas the longest human epic, consisting nearly of a million verses who are revered as people who are connected with supernatural forces.

Travelling to a mountainous village populated by Tajiks and Kyrgyzs, he instead witnesses the full scale of the epics wrath on his life