Artist & Author 2006-03-05

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

I try to watch at least one, usually two and often three movies a day (research for a book on movies dealing in some way with or for kids), and I thought I'd seen every gag possible in a movie. So, at this point I rarely find something new to laugh at in movies. This movie is totally different.

First, it is in Russian so you have to read subtitles. Unless we missed something when the subtitles cut off too fast, both my wife and I forgot we were even reading the dialog. It is impossible to adequately describe the humor in this film. In some ways it is slapstick, but much more. Maybe I could say it is British dry humor combined with slapstick to create a whole new form of comedy.

The first quality we noticed was that everything in the Tartar village out in the middle of a desert was constantly in a hurry. The girl, Mamlakat, imagines getting intimate with a visiting actor, but when it happens - she doesn't really know what happened. Her friend explains things to her. When she realizes that she has become pregnant, she goes for an abortion. Her behavior there is hilarious. However, before she can get the abortion, some other Muslim brothers attack the doctor for their sister's abortion and he is killed. So, Mamlakat is faced with telling her widowed father she is pregnant.

You have never seen a revelation such as this! I won't say what happens, but it is hilarious, yet at the same time very loving. The next thing you know, Mamlakat, her father and brain-injured brother are driving all across Uzbekistan, Tadijikistan, and Kirgizstan in search of the acting troupe to find the father. The three run into all kinds of ridiculous situations, including a ride over the bumpy roads in a blood donor van.

Just when you think everything is going to end happily ever after - on Mamlakat's wedding day to a very gallant young man who is willing to accept the unborn baby as his own - tragedy strikes. You have to see the movie to find out what happened - it is too farfetched, yet perfectly logical-sounding, to reveal here!

I don't know if I should say how the movie ends or not. Let's say, I hope you believe in magic carpets. Well, it isn't a magic carpet, but just about as unbelievable. Again, it is so funny, yet, to the simple mind of Mamlakat's brother so logical, you just have to see it to believe it!

Few Americans will ever see this movie. If you can find a copy of the DVD that you can afford, don't miss it. 'Luna Papa' is funny enough, (and sweet and loving) to make you forget you are reading subtitles! It is unlike any American comedy I've seen in the last 1200+ movies I've watched in the past two years.