Timur Bekmambetov, Ilgiz Zainiev

Khodja Nasreddin

Ходжа Насреддин

The performance Khoja Nasreddin is the first production in this genre and in the repertoire of the Theatre of Nations. Viewers will see puppets voiced by Evgeny Mironov, Konstantin Khabensky, Viktor Verzhbitsky, Igor Zolotovitsky, Chulpan Khamatova, Elizaveta Boyarskaya and Inga Oboldina. In the aesthetics of old black-and-white cinema, referring to the Soviet film Nasreddin in Bukhara in 1943, the streets of a medieval Asian city, a colorful oriental bazaar and the palace of Emir Timur (Tamerlane) will come to life on the stage.

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Actors

Puppeteers

Ekaterina Maletina, Maxim Kustov, Evgeny Shavkunov, Aleksandr Tretiak, Natalia Tretiak, Renat Shaimardanov

Khodja (Voice)

Konstantin Khabenskiy

Donkey (Voice)

Makhabbat (Voice)

Emir Timur (Voice)

Host (Voice)

Fatima (Voice)

Mare (Voice)

Crew

Director

Timur Bekmambetov

Lighting Designer

Aleksander Sivaev

Director, set designer

Anna Viktorova

Puppet master

Victor Antonov

Composer

Yuriy Poteenko

About

The main character of the production is the folklore character of the Muslim East, Khoja Nasreddin, a fabulous deceiver and a rogue, beloved from childhood by Bekmambetov himself.

“Over the course of many years I have dreamed of telling the story of this talented and paradoxical character who turns everything upside down,” the director says. - But since the world is upside down already, Khoja Nasreddin has everything in its place. We have created the image of the legendary trickster of Eastern civilization, and it resuted in a play about freedom, love and human rights, about the problems and aspirations of all times up to the present day, in general."

The story about Khoja Nasreddin is being told on behalf of the donkey. The donkey is the main sentimentalist and thinker in the story who helps his master return the bride from Tamerlane's harem, falls in love with a mare and has philosophical conversations with an annoying fly. To make a human out of a donkey is Nasreddin's last wish, and it seems to be the most realistic one, because Khoja never succeeded in finding human traits in people.

“As one gets older, one begins to understand the whole tragedy of the stories of Nasreddin, an intelligent hero among stupid and greedy people,” Timur Bekmambetov admits.

All the characters in the performance are brought to life by the actors Maxim Kustov, Evgeny Shavkunov, Ekaterina Maletina, Renat Shaimardanov from the Obraztsov Puppet Theatre and Alexander and Natalya Tretyak from the Moscow Regional Puppet Theatre.

Awards

The Golden Mask Award, 2022:
• best puppet theatre performance

Nominated for the Golden Mask Award:
• best director (Timur Bekmambetov, Anna Viktorova)
• set designer (Anna Viktorova)
• best actor (Evgeny Shavkunov, Evgeny Mironov)