Tag: Culture
How is Kyrgyzstan celebrating Nooruz in 2024?
Everyone in Kyrgyzstan is looking forward to a warm and sunny spring after a long and cold winter. Nooruz marks the astronomical start of the spring, or spring equinox, when… [...]
Kazakhstan: commemorating Victory Day without military parade
Similar to last year, May 9 in Kazakhstan is overshadowed by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Military parades have been cancelled, once again. Instead, this year’s Victory Day will mainly be… [...]
Beyond fun and games – the politics of Nowruz
In Central Asia, the beginning of spring is traditionally marked by Nowruz, also known as ‘Persian New Year.’ Typical holiday celebrations include horse games, family visits, and large feasts. But… [...]
Four Central Asian cultural practices newly inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List
A dancing mountain goat, a flowering garden of embroidery, a trickster’s tales, a silken thread spun from a worm’s cocoon – these are the diverse array of Central Asian cultural… [...]
“Manastchy”: the Kyrgyz soul in all its poetry
CENTRAL ASIAN CINEMA. Manastchy introduces us to the beauty and poetry of one of the maim Kyrgyz storytellers, Sayakbay Karalayev, and the mythical epic of Manas. This short film is… [...]
Support Novastan, the European Central Asia magazine
By supporting Novastan, you are supporting the only English, French and German-language media specialising in Central Asia. We're independent and we need your help to stay that way!
Jamila – the “world’s most beautiful love story” on film
CENTRAL ASIAN CINEMA. Jamila (1969) is the most famous film adaptation of Chingiz Aytmatov’s novel of the same name. The love story between Jamila and the injured ex-soldier Daniyar has… [...]
Looking for Rhythms of Lost Time, in Tajikistan
With her most recent documentary, Rhythms of Lost Time, Anisa Sabiri proposes a journey across the most remote regions of Tajikistan, home to the last vestiges of an ancient culture. [...]
From the high Pamirs to the shores of Lake Van: The tale of Turkey’s Kyrgyz community
In the far east of Turkey, not far from Lake Van, lies a small town called Ulupamir. Here 4,000 ethnic Kyrgyz maintain their cultural traditions and strive to preserve their… [...]
Tajikistan: Nine new sites on tentative World Heritage list
Tajikistan has submitted nine historical and cultural sites in the Zarafshan-Karakum corridor for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Currently, two places in Tajikistan have received the full status. [...]
“I want our theatre to be the new face of Tajik theatre”: Khurshed Mustafoev on the future of Dushanbe’s Russian theatre
In early 2021, Khurshed Mustafoev became artistic director of the Mayakovsky Theatre in Dushanbe. The actor, director and set designer has been working with the theatre company – the only… [...]
The Wounded Angel: a dramatic and profound portrait of 1990s rural Kazakhstan
CENTRAL ASIAN CINEMA. The film The Wounded Angel (2016) follows four adolescent boys in a rural village in mid-1990s Kazakhstan, each trying to come to terms with the lack… [...]
Igla: plunge into the underworld of Kazakhstan’s perestroika with the legendary Viktor Tsoi
CENTRAL ASIAN CINEMA. The rock-n-roll film Igla (The Needle in English) is a denunciation of the drug problem that plagued Soviet Central Asia in the late 1980s. But above all,… [...]