No. of screens 67 (2011) Documentary 7 | Fictional 1 Total 264,000 | |
The first films in the cinema of Tajikistan were produced in the early 1930s, for example Quand meurent les émirs by Lydia Pechorina in 1932.
But the first significant group of films were those of Bension Kimyagarov, with Dokhounda (1956), Rustam and Sukhrab (1971) — based on the Ferdosi epic, Un homme change de peau, produced in 1978, a year before his death. Between the directors of the same generation one can find the names of Vladimir Motyl with Children of Pamirs, Дети Памира (1963), Mukadas Makhmudov, Takhir Sabirov with The Legend of Love (1963), Anvar Turaev and Suvat Khamidov.
In 2006, a Tajik film Bihisht faqat baroi murdagon was presented in an official selected at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. Its director, Jamshed Usmonov was already known in France for his works Flight of the Bumblebee (co-produced with Min Byung-Hun) and particularly Angel on the Right also chosen at Cannes in 2002.
In 2009, True Noon by Nosir Saidov became the first Tajik film which made it to distribution in Tajikistan in 18 years, i.e. since independence. It was also aired at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.