Sunday 1 June 2008

Mustafa Shokay

Our reader Netania drew our attention to this video with a song from the soundtrack of a new film about Mustafa Shokay from Kazakhstan.



Mustafa Shokay, born into an aristocratic family in the village Aulie-Tarangyl in the Kyzyl-Orda region and of Kipchak and Kazakh origin, was one of the leaders of a revolt in 1917 against the Bolsheviks . After the revolt was crushed, he fled the country and lived in exile in Europe. During this time, he became one of the leading authorities on the history of Central Asia and was an ardent Turkestani nationalist. He later went on to help form the Turkestan Legion, who allied themselves with Germany during the Second World War, hoping to establish an independent state in Central Asia.


Mustafa is played by Aziz Beyshenaliev.

Anyway, (at least according to this clip) he also had a very dramatic love story with his wife, a Jewish redhead called Maria Yakovlevna ...
The music is by the duo Musicola. The singer, Karina Abdullina, apparently also plays the role of Shokay's wife.



My favourite scene:







*sigh* ...

Here are some more screencaps from this film, and here's a bit more about Musicola.

Apparently, Shokay is buried here in Berlin.

3 comments:

Ainur Elmgren said...

Mustafa is a great name. Maybe I like it because it has "musta" in it. Anyway, my favourite scene was near the end, where Maria caresses his neck. Say no more.

One of the great things about visiting Japan was seeing these male necks with a cropped black hairline against pale skin everywhere. I didn't even glance at the long-haired guys with brown dye... Everybody talks about geisha neck lines but I think I know why the samurai wore a topknot...

(Men generally look better from the back than from the front, in every country. What's the deal with that? Not very practical - except if nature intended that we don't get an impulse to run away or stab them when their backs are turned...)

Tinet said...

I agree - there is something irresistible about the necks of Asian guys ... And Asians tend more towards nice sideburn-like things in front of their ears, too. Quite tempting. Heh ...

But come on, don't stoop to biologism!
I think the only reason that random women can more often look good from the front, too, is that we've been brainwashed into paying more attention to our looks. From behind, women look "better", as well, because what their face looks like is left to your imagination.
A similar phenomenon is how I think German is a schmexy language, and when I hear some guy talking behind me I keep getting my hopes up, but then I see what he looks like and I'm all disappointed. With Turkish I have a similar thing, but there I'm less often disappointed when I see the guy. :op

mehnaz said...

Mustafa Means "the chosen one" in Arabic:-I like this name too.

I an fascinated by this character and hopefully would get top seefilm too.

I agree with both Ainur and Tinet about the back...............