Tuva.Asia / The New Research of Tuva

The festival which began on 28 September, is gathering speed: performance after performance, the first stage is finished. Tuvan ensemble "Sayany"  has performed "Dembildei", "Ezir Kara", "Vereteno", "Shaman", and "Naadym". Aside from the contest performances, which brought in about one thousand spectators every day, the festival participants also bring pleasure to their hosts with performances on small stages, "Sayany" with a new number and new costumes every time. During a10-minute show, they presented "Doshpuluurum", "Shaman", and "Oitulaash", and during a15-minute show, "Ezir Kara", "Shaman", "Zvenyashchaya nezhnost" and "Oitulaash".

The film "Disappearance of a witness"  turned into a trampoline for Papa that gave him the final boost into cinematographic Olympus. Akira Kurosawa, the director of world-renown, when he saw the movie, cast the Tuvan actor Maxim Munzuk for the title role of his film "Dersu Uzala".

Papa used to tell us that Kurosawa, after reading Vladimir Arseniev's books "Po Ussuriyskomu krayu" (In the Ussuri land) and "Dersu Uzala"  was so absorbed with the image of Dersu, that he simply dreamed about bringing the books to the screen, and he was happy when such an opportunity presented itself.

The filming of the Soviet-Japanese co-production film took place in 1974 in the Ussuri taiga, in the district of  the town of Arsenievo; Maxim Munzuk received the honorary citizenship of this town on 23 October 1975, after the filming was finished.