Ashug-Karibi (1988) was shown in the U.S. with the title Ashik-Kerib. The film was directed by Sergei Parajanov. (David Abashidze is listed as co-director.) The title literally means "The Strange Lover." The movie is called a Georgian or Russian movie, but it was produced in Azerbaijan. (Azerbaijan was under Soviet rule until 1991.)
The hero of the film is a talented but poor musician, who plays the traditional stringed instrument the saz (baglama), which looks and sounds like a small lute. The hero is in love with the daughter of a wealthy merchant, and she with him.
However, her father demands that she marry someone with wealth. It's agreed that the minstrel has 1001 days to make his fortune and return home to marry the young woman. That's the plot--the hero leaves his home and the rest of the film is a road movie that follows him in his travels.
This would be a fairly standard film device if Parajanov's style were like the style of other great directors. However, his style is unique. He shows us colorful paintings, dancing, and we hear Azerbaijani music. We see tableaux and he used intertitles. Color is at the center call the movie. "Colorful" doesn't capture the absolute riot of colors that we see.
This is a film that would work better on the large screen than on the small screen, but we watched it on DVD. It has a strong IMDb rating of 7.4. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 9.
P.S. Parajanov spent years in jail because of "crimes" he committed. His real offense was that he refused to make Soviet Realism films. These authoritarian officials deprived Parajanov of his liberty and deprived the world of his talent.
