“Matonat” translated from Uzbek means “Unbroken”. The film tells the story of Soviet soldiers – mostly ethnic Uzbeks – who were captured during the Great Patriotic War and ended up in the Nazi concentration camp Amersfoort.
According to the plans of the Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany, Goebbels, they were supposed to clearly demonstrate what kind of barbarians German soldiers were fighting. For this purpose, a special group of 101 “Russian Asians” was organized from prisoners of war. They were mercilessly beaten, starved, and tortured with backbreaking labor to reduce them to an animal state. With all their appearance, exhausted people had to demonstrate their insignificance in front of the movie cameras. But everything turned out completely differently – the torturers unwittingly witnessed the extraordinary courage, perseverance and fortitude of their victims…
Running time: 46 min.
Production: Uzbekistan – 2021
Creative team
Scriptwriter: Razika Mergenbaeva
Director: Shukhrat Makhmudov
Cinematographer: Rifkat Ibragimov, Rustam Magadiev
Sound engineer: Shaislom Khusanov, Konstantin Filanov
Composer: Dmitry Yanov-Yanovsky
Producer: Firdavs Abdukhalikov
About the author
Shukhrat Mansurovich Makhmudov lives in Tashkent. Graduated from the camera department of VGIK (workshop of B.I. Volchek). As a director of photography, he shot 4 feature films. For the film “Meetings and Partings” at the All-Union Film Festival in Baku in 1974 he received a prize for best cinematography. As a documentary director and cinematographer, he has made more than 90 films. Participant, prize-winner and jury member of many international film festivals. In Soviet times, for a film about Afghanistan he was awarded the title of laureate of the USSR State Prize.
Selected filmography
2010 – “Light from the East”
1997 – “Black Ash”
1990 – “Flame”
1988 – “Dignity, or the secret of a smile”
1986 – “Boomerang”
