Heiners Filmseiten – Angel on the Right (en)

Angel on the Right (Fararishtay kifti rost)

German title: Der Engel zu meiner Rechten
Francaise title: L’ange de l’épaule droite
Spain title: El Ángel de la Derecha
Russian title: Ангел правого плеча
Original title: Fararishtay kifti rost

Alternative titles:
Ангел справа

Drama – Tadshikistan, Switzerland, Italy, France
Production year: 2002
Movie length: 89 minutes

Director: Jamshed Usmonov
Writer: Jamshed Usmonov
Cinematograph: Pascal Lagriffoul
Music: Michael Galasso

Movie description:

An unrepentant prodigal son straight out of a Russian jail returns to his hometown, Asht, to help his mother die with dignity. But his debts in his hometown are many and long overdue, the townspeople are tough as nails, and he soon gets more than he expected from the quiet village. In this dark comedy, his third feature, writer-director Jamshed Usmonov cast the population of Asht as its own persuasive self and his own mother and brother as the fractured yet formidable domestic couple.

Set in the Tadjik village of Asht, this film draws on the Muslim notion that we are born with an angel on each shoulder, and that the angel on the right records the good that we do throughout our lives, and the angel on the left the bad. Hamro, who has served ten years in a Moscow prison is summoned home upon release, to help settle the affairs of his dying mother, but it is soon borne into him that he must settle his own outstanding affairs with the villagers. Yatim, his nine year old son he never knew about, is entrusted by the dying mother with the family heirloom jewellery, tasked with only passing it on to his father if he becomes a good man.

Boy Actors