The Desert of Forbidden Art

2010

1 hr. 20 min.

Documentary

Adventure

Biography

History

Drama

War

List

89%

18 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

Igor Savitsky rescues 40,000 pieces of forbidden art and creates a museum.

Read More

Read Less

Prime Video

Apple TV

Rent The Desert of Forbidden Art on Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Prime Video, Apple TV.

walter m

"The Desert of Forbidden Art" is an informative documentary about a fascinating subject, the Nukus Museum in Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan. When this area was part of the Soviet Union, the Stalinist idea was to repress the local culture as much as possible in favor of conformity.(On the plus side, women's liberation was introduced.) In response, Igor Savitsky began collecting as much local folk art as he could to put it in a museum, so it could be viewed and preserved. If that was not daring enough, then he also went on to do something similar for censored avant garde art which clashed with the official propaganda artwork of the social realist style that ironically had nothing to do with reality. While getting bonus points for using a clip from the excellent movie "The White Sun of the Desert," "The Desert of Forbidden Art" mainly relies on the testimony of survivors and children of artists to tell its story. While it allows for an emotional recounting of events, it sadly does not allow for a coherent timeline. And yes we know all about the gulags by now. As for the present day, the documentary summarily skips over reported Uzbek human rights abuses(hat tip: Dirty Diplomacy by Craig Murray) in favor of what it feels is the greater peril of "radical Islam."

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A truly incredible story of a large collection of Russian art work hiding in plain sight in Karakalpakstan.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Stunning story of a passionate pursuit of forbidden art!!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Lovely doc about a Soviet curator who built a museum of banned art in Uzbekistan under Stalin's nose, saving and collecting artwork from artists all over the USSR. Feels a bit PBS-y, and ends abruptly, but it's a fascinating story about the triumph of art over censorship.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Awesome historical art documentary. Intriguing true story about Russian art following the Bolshevik revolution.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A beautiful film where we get to know an art collector's life-long passion for art

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Tchavdar Georgiev

Director

Amanda Pope

Director

Ed Asner

Voice

Sally Field

Voice

Ben Kingsley

Voice

Tchavdar Georgiev

Screenwriter

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Critics Consensus: Battle: Los Angeles Loses The Fight

View more photos

Scott Foundas

Film Comment Magazine

Then there are the paintings themselves, which are breathtaking in their brilliant colors, and their hybrid influences of the Russian avant-garde and Central Asian folk culture.

Jun 28, 2013

Full Review

Diego Semerene

Slant Magazine

What does the collector's collecting aim to substitute? What does the collection attempt to replace in the collector?

Rated: 2.5/4

Mar 20, 2011

Full Review

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Viewers of this remarkable documentary will be astonished at not only what this art looks like and why it's forbidden, but also where it is and how it got there.

Rated: 4/5

Mar 17, 2011

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

A testament to the triumph of freedom over repression, of expression over censorship, but Pope and Georgiev clearly understand what other filmmakers often overlook - these were real people.

Rated: 2.5/4

Aug 5, 2019

Full Review

Ron Wilkinson

Monsters and Critics

The fascinating story of one of the greatest collections of avant-garde art in the world and a plea for help in preserving it.

Rated: 9/10

Mar 15, 2011

Full Review

Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

One of the paintings featured herein is currently my Windows desktop image.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 15, 2011

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Igor Savitsky rescues 40,000 pieces of forbidden art and creates a museum.

Director: Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope
Screenwriter: Tchavdar Georgiev, Amanda Pope
Genre: Documentary, Adventure, Biography, History, Drama, War
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 20, 2016

Most Popular at Home Now