Per°Form Open Academy of Arts and Activations 2024 Studio — Her Right (2020) & Chillahona (2022) by Saodat Ismailova

Synopsis — Her Right (2020)

Through a patchwork of videos from Uzbek cinema spanning 1927 to 1985, Her Right captures the perilous choices faced by women during the Hujum era illuminating the struggle between traditional values and state-imposed ideologies. In a time defined by emotional and social upheaval, the theme of women’s emancipation remains significant within Uzbek Soviet cinema.

Synopsis — Chillahona (2022)

In a three-channel video filmed in Tashkent’s underground meditation cells, Chillahona captures the essence of self-isolation and devotion. Through intricate visuals intertwining real and mystical realms, Saodat weaves a narrative steeped in Central Asian heritage, invoking female cosmology and ancestral tales to illuminate the human experience.

About Saodat Ismailova

Saodat is an Uzbek filmmaker and artist graduated from Tashkent State Art Institute and Le Fresnoy, National Studio of Contemporary Arts. Interweaving myths, rituality, and dreams within the tapestry of everyday life, her films investigate the historically complex and layered culture of Central Asia which stand at the crossroads of diverse material histories and migratory legacies. Departing from her personal history marked by growing up in the post-Soviet Uzbekistan, she reaches out to the collective dimension of memory. Her research encompasses the region’s ancestral knowledge and traditional spiritual practices as well as modern history of Uzbekistan which manifests through the interlacing of archival footage from its cinematic history.