Bratan

17-year-old Farukh and seven-year-old Azamat are two brothers from a small town in Tajik town who were raised by their grandmother after their parents split up. They decide to travel to their father who works as a doctor at a sanatorium in a distant city. Their train journey across Tajikistan takes them through hills and mountains, cities and villages right through to the Afghan border.

The Tajik director managed to shoot this, his charming, subtly humorous debut with its amazing footage of a old locomotive puffing away whilst crossing the vast steppe-like landscape, on a shoestring budget.

Eye contributed to the digital restoration of Bratan, initiated and executed by Veit Helmer-Filmproduktion. Veit Helmer (Tuvalu, Absurdistan) was a life-long friend of director Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov. Khudojnazarov died in 2015 ath the age of 49. Other wellknown films of him are Kosh ba Kosh (Zilveren Leeuw, Venetië 1993) en Luna Papa (1995).