The Golden Bay

The Golden Bay (Iradi: Altyn Kula; Russian: Золотой гнедой) is a 1980 Soviet Eastern directed by Timur Aslanov for Talasfilm Studios, the first film made in the wake of Desert Sun’s Rebellion (1979). In the years after the Civil War two rival clans race a prized bay stallion across the desert to a horse fair on the Chu, each trying to sabotage the other on the way. Erkin Sultanbekov, the Kara-Bek of Desert Sun's Rebellion, plays the leader of the rival clan.^[1]

Aslanov had been the original director of Desert Sun's Rebellion until Sadikov replaced him at the start of production, and the studio gave him The Golden Bay the following year. Made quickly and with an eye on the earlier film's success, it was popular in the republic, though critics found it a pale copy of its model; its race sequences, filmed with riders from the Talas valley, are still admired.^[1]

References

1. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). West of the East: The Iradi Western, 1979–1991, pp. 1–64.