“One day I will become a director and shoot you in my film!”, said a young student of the Acting Faculty to his friend. This promising student was Charyyar Seyidov.
The future film director was born in the historical homeland of the poet Makhtumkuli Fragi – in the village of Gerkez. And apparently this circumstance influenced the formation of the spiritual warehouse of the developing personality.
As a boy, Charyyar read poems of the classic of Turkmen literature to fellow villagers, but was most interested in exact sciences. Therefore, in his youth, he went to Ashgabat to enroll in the Turkmen State University named after Gorky (now Makhtumkuli), to the Faculty of Physics.
After failing the entrance exams, he got a job at a construction site. However, any failures only put you to a success. And a year later, fate gave the young man the opportunity to try his fortune at acting.
His friend persuaded him to go and pass exams at a theater university. So, Charyyar Seyidov became a student of the Tashkent State Theater and Art Institute named after Ostrovsky.
“I went to study to Uzbekistan literally on the roof of the train, – the film director recalls. – And only after some years of studying at the theater I realized that in order to instill a love for the profession, it is needed a good mentor, a teacher who would help students discover their talents. I had such a teacher, but I did not take advantage of the chance that fell on me. One day, my course and I went to practice in Moscow and Leningrad, Professor Joseph Veniaminovich Radun was sitting next to me on the plane, who, apparently noticing some makings of an organizer in me, suggested me to move to the department of directing.”
Having refused such a tempting offer, Charyar Seyidov decided to independently go through the path of his profession moulding. Finishing a creative university as an actor, he had already understood that directing was closer to him.
For many years, the newly arrived specialist worked at the Turkmenfilm studio, practiced under the famous Turkmen Director Kakov Orazsakhatov and gained experience from old-timers of the Turkmen cinematograph.
Charyar Seyidov began to shoot a big movie on his own only after six years of intensive practice. Among his first film works are Zvezdochka and Kulanenok feature film, as well as Return to Earth, Patterns of Your Carpet” – the documentary films, 60th Spring – the concert film and others. The fateful promise about shooting in the film, which he once gave to a classmate, also came true.
In 1994, the director opened his own film studio – Mekanfilm, where he has been still working today. Continuing to implement creative projects, Charyar Seyidov teaches at the Turkmen State Institute of Culture. The film director plans to make a film for the 300th anniversary of the great poet and philosopher Makhtumkuli Fragi, whose work once served as an impetus for the disclosure of his own talents.
Svetlana Chirtsova
