Khodja Nasreddin

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.

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