Destination: Tashkent. Erfahrungen des cineastischen Internationalismus

Destination: Tashkent is a festival for film and discourse that takes place at HKW and other venues in Berlin and Tashkent. It is based on the concept and history of the Tashkent Festival for Asian, African and Latin American Cinema, which took place in Uzbekistan from 1968 to 1988. Over 240 filmmakers, actors, critics and politicians from 49 Asian and African countries took part in the first edition; a total of 115 feature and documentary films were shown. From 1976 onwards, filmmakers from Latin America also took part. The home countries of many of the participants had concluded strategic alliances with the Soviet Union against colonialism, capitalism and Western imperialism, but their role in Tashkent was by no means limited to national representation. The cinema of the so-called Third World was actively involved, creating a space for direct South-South exchange, even between countries that were non-aligned or critical of the Soviet Union. The numerous discussion panels, receptions and excursions, which were an integral part of the festival, were decisive for this.

The multifaceted program of the Tashkent Festival, which included both popular feature films and activist documentaries, was aimed at a wide-ranging audience. A comprehensive translation program also ensured that locals could also enjoy the program. In such a multilingual environment, translation work posed a particular challenge, as only a few films were subtitled. The organizing team therefore decided to offer live translations into Russian (via loudspeakers), English, French and later also Spanish and Arabic (via headphones). As historian Elena Razlogova describes, the translators in Tashkent literallyredefined the films by putting a live performance over the original soundtrack. Every single visitor received a simultaneous translation; those who did not understand any of the official festival languages were accompanied by interpreters who had Bengali, Khmer, Wolof or other languages in their repertoire. In this sense, translation and oral commentary formed the heart of the festival.

Many films that premiered in Tashkent subsequently found their way into the cinemas of the then Soviet Union and its Central Asian Soviet republics, whose audiences were enthusiastic about major productions from India or Egypt as well as political films from Chile or Senegal. Until its last edition in 1988, the Tashkent Festival was one of the most important destinations for filmmakers from the countries of the South, who were not only able to present their works there, but also found a discursive space for long-term, solidarity-based exchange. The festival became a place of lived cinematic internationalism and a contact zone, not least due to its location in a city that ultimately had to come to terms with its own (semi-)colonial present within the Soviet Union.

Having long stood in the shadow of the Cold War and its upheavals, Berlin has today developed into an important center of the African, Latin American and Asian diaspora and, against the backdrop of its particular historical context, can claim to be a new meeting place for South-South cooperation along the lines of the Tashkent Festival. Destination: Tashkent also explores these creative and collaborative synergies within the diasporic spheres of Berlin and aims to critically question what and how can be learned from the experiences of the Tashkent Festival in order to open up a space of open possibilities between Tashkent and Berlin from a historical and contemporary perspective,

After a prologue that will take place in Tashkent in September, the spirit of the festival will be revived in Berlin from November 27 to December 1, 2024 at the venues HKW and Sinema Transtopia. In addition to historical productions that reflect the diversity of the original program, Destination: Tashkent will also show current films from Central Asia and the Berlin-based diaspora from three continents. Some screenings will be accompanied by a live commentary. The discourse program explores the traces that the Tashkent Festival has left behind in today's film festivals, film productions and distribution networks. The festival will be accompanied by a reader with texts and conversations, archive finds and the results of curatorial research on location, which will be presented during the program in Berlin.