Yusup Razykov

Yusup Suleymanovich Razykov was born on 5 June 1957 in Tashkent into a military family. After school he studied philology at Tashkent State University and, in the same years, worked as a lighting technician at the Uzbekfilm studio. In 1986 he graduated from the screenwriting faculty of VGIK in Moscow, in the workshop of V. K. Chernykh.

He began in cinema as a screenwriter: at the Moscow youth film festival in 1983 the short film “The Staircase in a House with a Lift”, directed by Aman Kamchibekov from his script, won the main prize for best screenplay. Razykov lived in Moscow for fifteen years and worked at the Mosfilm studio. In 1987 he wrote the script of “The Bitterness of Falling”, and in 1990 he directed his first film, “Under the Mask of the Black Cat”.

In Uzbekistan he directed and wrote the television series “Domla” (1994) and “Poryadok” (1997), counted among the first Uzbek TV series. From October 1999 until 2004 he was director of the Uzbekfilm studio, and from 2004 its artistic director. In those years “The Orator” (1999) won the Grand Prix of the Kinoshok festival of CIS and Baltic countries, while “Women’s Kingdom” (2000), “Comrade Boykenzhayev” (2002), “The Healer” (2003) and “The Girl Shepherd” were put forward for the Nika award for best film of the CIS and Baltic countries. In 2001 he was named Honoured Art Worker of Uzbekistan.

From the late 2000s Razykov has worked mostly in Russian cinema. “Gastarbeiter” (2009) won the Valery Frid Prize at the Stalker festival; “Shame” (2013) won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Grand Prix of the Trieste festival in 2014.

“The Turkish Saddle” (2017) received the Tariverdiev prize and a diploma of the Guild of Film Critics at Kinotavr, and “Kerosene” (2019) the Guild’s Dondurei prize at the same festival. His later works include “Sabre Dance” (2019), about the composer Aram Khachaturian, and “The French Master” (2021). As of 2025 he was reported to run a workshop at the Tashkent branch of VGIK.