Skip to content
RAI FILM
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
with a digital version available
x
Region
“Middle and Near East”
x
Country
“Afghanistan”
x
Keywords
“Nomads and Nomadism”
x
Year of production
“1975”
x
Status
“A”
x
films with a digital version
1
x
Region
Middle and Near East
1
x
Country
Afghanistan
1
x
Keywords
Herding
1
Nomads and Nomadism
1
x
Social Organisation
1
Directors
Nairn, Charlie
1
Singer, André
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
Year of production
1975
1
x
Status
Film
The Kirghiz of Afghanistan
1975
51
‘
Directed by
Charlie Nairn
André Singer
.
The Kirghiz of Afghanistan are a group of some 2,000 pastoralists living on a bleak mountain plateau in a narrow isthmus of land between the borders of the Soviet Union and China. For nine months of the year heavy snows cover the ground, which was formerly used only by the Kirghiz for their summer pastures before the borders were closed, virtually terminating the contact of this group with other Kirghiz communities. Although the film shows dramatically the ten-day journey which lowland traders must make to reach this remote people, as well as scenes of a Kirghiz wedding and the traditional Central Asian sport of ‘buzkashi’ – demonstrating the horse-riding skills of the people – there is very little about the pastoral economy and society of the ordinary Kirghiz. The main reason for this is that the film focuses on the remarkable wealth and authority of their leader – the Khan – by far the wealthiest pastoralist on the plateau. Ninety-five Kirghiz families work for him as shepherds and herders. The film’s principal concern is to show the way in which the Khan wields his power (using interviews with him and illustrative scenes) which thus turns The Kirghiz into a study of oppressive paternalism in this remote corner of the world. There is, however, some disagreement over the interpretation of the Khan’s role (see correspondence in RAIN listed below). N. Tapper, 1976. Review of the film. RAIN, 13, p.6. See also correspondence in RAIN, 16, pp.10–11.
Middle and Near East
Herding
Nomads and Nomadism
Social Organisation