Matlyuba Alimova

Matlyuba Farkhatovna Alimova was born on 12 August 1954 in Andijan. She studied at VGIK in Moscow: she was first admitted to Boris Babochkin’s course, later moved to Aleksey Batalov’s workshop and graduated from the acting faculty in 1978.

She came to the screen while still a student, appearing in “Ballad of the White-Maned Horse” in 1975. Since 1978 she has been an actress of the Uzbekfilm studio.

In 1979 she played two notable roles: Laura in “The Little Tragedies” (opposite Vladimir Vysotsky as Don Juan) and Nastya in the four-part “Tsygan”. The second brought her wide fame, and she returned to Nastya in “The Return of Budulai” (1985).

In 1980 she played her first leading role, Malika, in “In the Rapids of the Furious River”. During the same decade she appeared in “Vasily Buslaev”, “A Meeting at the High Snows” and “Hot Summer in Kabul”, and in 1991 she played Fatima in “Wild Field”.

After the Soviet film industry collapsed, large roles became rarer and she worked on restoring Bukhara and Shakhrisabz embroidery. In the 2000s she appeared in smaller parts in “Ballads About Hussars”, “Taras Bulba” (2009) and “Forensic Expert” (2010); the last entry in her filmography is “Mukhamory” (2016).