Soviet propaganda goes full cowboy: Red Army vs. desert rebels in a fever dream of 1920s Turkestan.
1920. The enemy of Soviet Russia is not broken everywhere. Basmachi gangs are rampaging through Turkestan. A group of kulaks, with the support of local merchants and warriors, incites the Red Army soldiers to counter-revolutionary rebellion...
Production
Soviet Uzbekistan shot like a spaghetti western fever dream.
Costume
Basmachi warriors look INCREDIBLE, honestly stealing every scene.
Director
Aleksey Zubov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Brezhnev stagnation, this revived 1920s civil war narratives to distract from contemporary Soviet failures. The Basmachi movement—actual anti-colonial resistance—gets the full villain treatment.
Director Zubov was primarily an animator; this was his rare live-action feature, explaining the slightly uncanny, storybook quality of the desert compositions.
SU
