This is the first of Tulyahodzhayev's films I've seen aside from his famous There Will Come Soft Rains (1984). Obviously, he was not a one-hit wonder, even though that film is far more famous than anything he has done since. Since the USSR broke up not long after, most of his works have not been distributed outside of Uzbekistan. I'll have to see if I can find some of his other films (well, I already found Alpomish, but it's quite dialogue-heavy and I don't know Uzbek).

I think that this film is masterfully made. Some may say that the meaning is a bit cryptic, I wouldn't. I think it only seems that way because the traditional Central Asian town setting is very alien to most of us, but the actual story seems to be pretty straightforward once it gets going. Its themes of staying true to one's artistic inspiration in the face of your "superiors" trying to drag you down reminds me of "Hoffmaniada" in a way (which started production not too long before this film did, but was finished only in 2018).

Overly optimistic? Maybe. Or maybe it's saying that you can't keep people's inspirations bottled up forever, that eventually matters will erupt, one way or another.