The Flight of the Bee

Usmonov (Tajik) and Min (Korean) were fellow film students in Moscow who teamed up to make this remarkable film, a social fable which deals obliquely with the root causes of the Tajik civil war but has the elemental simplicity of a legend. Schoolteacher Anor is outraged by the behaviour of his nouveau riche neighbour, who stares lustfully at Anor's wife and builds a stinking toilet next to Anor's wall. When the corrupt local magistrate (pressured by the neighbour) fails to intervene, Anor vengefully buys land next to the magistrate's home and begins digging out what he says will be a public toilet. Kiarostami comparisons are in order: the blend of earthy plainness, conceptual sophistication and muscular mise en scène is that beautiful.