Luna Papa

Alternative title: Lunnyy Papa
Synopsis: Feature film. Comedy-fantasy partly narrated by the unborn baby of a young stagestruck girl who finds herself pregnant following the visit of a touring theatre to the ancient city by the sea which is her home. She misses the theatre’s performance, finding herself instead the same evening falling down a hillside with one of the actors. When the company leaves, she finds herself mysteriously expecting a baby. Her shocked family then sets out on a long trek in search of the father so she can marry him. The film includes some brief excerpts from a performance of Othello and Mamlakat also recites some lines from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Lanier (op cit) notes that ‘in a witty moment, when Mamlikat arrives too late for an Othello production, she discovers a black ram and a white ewe wandering on the stage near the bed’.
Language: Russian
Country: Austria; Switzerland; Germany; France; Japan; Russian Federation; Tadjikistan; Uzbekistan
Medium: Film
Technical information: Colour / Sound
Year of release: 1999
Duration: 107 mins

Director

Bakhytar Khudojnazarov

Producer

Cinematographer

Screenplay

Bakhytar Khudojnazarov; Irakli Kvirikadze

Music

Daler Nazarov

Costume

Zebo Nasirova

Art Direction

Negmat Jouraiev

Cast

Awards: The film won several awards at international film festivals including the Jury Award (to Khudojnazarov) at the 2000 Bergen International Film Festival.
Reviews: Lanier, Douglas ‘Film Spin-Offs and Citations’ in Burt, Richard (ed). Shakespeares After Shakespeares: an Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. (p. 247, entry 1020).