‘Alteration’: Busan Review

Dir/scr: Yalkin Tuychiev. Uzbekistan. 2022. 105mins

A man’s life becomes the prism through which his country’s turbulent history is traced in Alteration, the impressively ambitious ninth feature by Uzbek writer-director Yalkin Tuychiev. Tracing the rollercoaster fortunes of Rustam (Ulmas Uraev) in elliptical, episodic style from the early 1980s into the present century, it should nab further festival play after landing one of two equal top prizes in the newly-instituted Jiseok competition at Busan for more established Asian directors (the other was Iran’s Scent Of Wind).

Alteration is an easier film to admire than embrace

Built around a nuanced performance by Uraev, the film successfully navigates styles and moods to match the very different phases of Rustam’s highly eventful life. It will likely obtain the most significant international exposure yet for Tuychiev, whose Chasma (2006) was named best film of its sidebar at the Moscow Film Festival. His previous outing 2000 Songs of Farida was Uzbekistan’s International Feature Oscar submission in both 2020 (when it was disqualified on a technicality) and 2021, and Alteration could follow suit.

Divided into chapters of unequal length named after elemental and natural forces (Fire, Air, Land), the first and longest section introduces us to a greenhorn, teenage-looking Rustam as he somewhat unwillingly serves in the Soviet army during the USSR’s ill-fated invasive war in Afghanistan (1979-81). Parallels with the current situation in Ukraine are hard to overlook, as Tulchiev effectively conjures the confusion, brutality and unpredictability of armed conflict.

A virtuoso piece of camerawork at the 28-minute mark takes us through the windscreen of a military truck just as it is exploded from behind, heralding the first of several abrupt, disorienting jumps in location and chronology. Rustam awakens as a prisoner of Afghanistan’s native mujahideen, experiencing torture before being suddenly released into the wilderness. In double-quick time he has become the protege of a wealthy local oilman (Bakhram Matchanov), who counsels him “you have to begin anew.”

Marriage to the oilman’s daughter seems set to open a happier phase in Rustam’s life. But tragedy strikes on the wedding day, sending him into a downward spiral of grief, depression and drugs. Some part of Rustam’s soul seems to die with his bride, and while he will later obtain dizzying wealth (almost overnight) plus a wife and children, he becomes increasingly withdrawn and morose — shades of Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III.

Having long espoused a philosophy of perpetual forward motion, Rustam deduces that he must somehow come to terms with his formative experiences in Afghanistan if he is to achieve any kind of inner calm. This involves reconnection with the flinty KGB Captain (Igor Bukhaidze) who captured him after he went AWOL — the latter one of several crucial developments which are referred to but left unshown.

The thorny bond between the two men eventually emerges as the emotional crux of a rather chilly affair which otherwise mirrors Rustam’s self-enclosed, downbeat taciturnity: Alteration is thus an easier film to admire than embrace. Tuychiev punctuates proceedings with directorial flourishes which mostly serve to embellish the story and take us into Rustam’s point-of-view, but which occasional stray into heavy-handedness.

The picture is also stronger visually than aurally: the Uzbek-inflected strings-dominated score occasionally becomes intrusively prominent, and the old-fashioned post-dubbing of the dialogue (which freely moves between Russian and Uzbek) is sometimes a distraction. But the central narrative spine is sufficiently strong to compel interest, Uraev rising to the challege of incarnating a character who is not only prone to mercurial change but who must allegorically stand for an entire nation.