The Desert of Forbidden Art

Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev's enlightening documentary is about a priceless collection of 40,000 banned eclectic Russian Avant-Garde art amassed by Igor Savitsky during the Soviet regime, now in a museum at the Western border of Uzbekistan.

The diaries and letters of Savitsky and other artists are voiced by Ben Kingsley, Sally Field, and Ed Asner. Special to the documentary are period images, archival footage shown for the first time, recollections of the artists' children, now in their seventies and eighties, as well as close friends.

Most of the art Savitsky collected represents a unique artistic style that fuses European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions. Savitsky's first museum was opened in 1966 and included his collection of Karakalpaks folk crafts. In 2003 a bigger more modern museum was opened displaying only 3% of the collection as the rest is in need of restoration.

The documentary was filmed at the Nukus Museum where its current director Marinika Babanzarova oversees this collection however, economic and political conditions endanger the survivability of this beautiful art that speaks of a lost generation.