Documentary filmmakers Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev take us to remote Uzbekistan for a first rate art world adventure. The Desert of Forbidden Art is about how Igor Savitsky, a Russian art collector, managed to prevent the repressive Soviet regime from destroying priceless works of art that the bureaucracy deemed to be anti-Soviet.
Savitsky convinced authorities in Karakalpakstan, a desert republic that's surrounded by Uzbekistan, to build a museum to house the suspect works. Savitsky's Nukus Museum holds some 44,000 world class works of art by banished artists from around the Soviet Union. Collectively, their paintings present an unprecedented and thrilling look at the variety of cultures and lifestyles that existed within the framework of the former Soviet Union.
The Desert of Forbidden Art is, itself, a work of art about the art world.
The Desert of Forbidden Art opens theatrically in New York at Cinema Village on March 11 and in Los Angeles at Laemmle Music Hall on March 18. Meanwhile, read my full review.
(PHOTO: 'The Desert of Forbidden Art' Poster Art. Courtesy of PBS/Independent Lens).
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