Shadow of the Holy Book (2007) User Reviews

Turkmenbashi

[JohnSeal · 8/10 · 11 October 2009]

This is an excellent, if all too brief, film detailing the twisted tale of Saparmurat Niyazov, late President of the central Asian republic of Turkmenistan. Rising from the ashes of the former Soviet Union, Turkmenistan became the personal fief of this one-time loyal Communist Party apparatchik who became the focus of a personality cult and was elected, unopposed, to the Turkmen presidency in 1992. He proceeded to help himself to his homeland's wealth, skimming off a billion here and a billion there before his death in December 2006, attributed at the time to cardiac arrest, but later the subject of rumors involving poison. Director Arto Halonen has definitely taken a leaf or two from Michael Moore's playbook, but the story of Niyazov - and the 'Ruhnama', the 'Holy Book' he wrote - is so fascinating you'll forgive him the stylistic plagiarism.

Very interesting, wish it were longer

[slavabregovic · 8/10 · 13 December 2020]

We're taken on quite a weird little trip with this documentary. All the way to Turkmenia (aka Turkmenistan), one of the world's seemingly most-isolated country. Only in fact, the leader and his sycophants do quite a bit of international business. This invite is often apparently staged by foreign companies offering to translate a strange and legendary "spiritual book" written by the late Sapamurat Niyazov. We see more of big business than usual, as well as some re-enacted Turkmen propaganda. I wish this would've delved a bit more into the contents of the "Ruhnama", as it is quite a delirious, rambling, dizzying book (containing the history and spiritual concepts, cultural artifacts and values of the Turkmen people----according to Niyazov). However, this documentary packs a lot into its short run time. Quite a story told here, with plenty of ethical questions to consider.

One of the best documentaries I saw last year

[nathan-paul-white · 10/10 · 18 August 2009]

This was a terrific documentary, though you have to get its sense of humor to enjoy it. The point of the film is to show how ridiculous these big international companies make themselves by doing anything and everything to flatter the dictator of Turkmenistan and help support his regime. The film is very funny, and it really brings out the hypocrisy of these corporations. At the same time, you get a strong sense of how the people in Turkmenistan are being oppressed by their government, and how the corporations help this oppression by making public statements in support of the government. The film also does a nice job of showing the surreal world that the dictator created for himself. I laughed all the way through.

Boring and surprisingly uninformative

[kghispredi · 2/10 · 6 August 2009]

Unfortunately for Turkmenistan's residents, Saparmurat Niyazov's dictatorship left a huge and bizarre footprint on the country. He renamed months and days of the week in honor of him and his mother, he outlawed opera and ballet...

It would be excellent material for a documentary, but authors instead focus on Niyazov's book Ruhnama, which is regarded as holy scripture in Turkmenistan. The angle they chose is collaboration of Western corporations with this oil-rich country by means of translating Ruhnama to gain Niyazov's blessing.

So, corporations are ready to do business with a dictator if there's money to be made. Who knew?! This revelation grasped the authors' attention so much that they spent almost the entire movie filming themselves in motel rooms, calling said corporations' PR people, unsuccessfully trying to get them to talk about their support of Niyazov.

We learn very little about the book itself. The hour and the half apparently weren't enough to discuss the content of the book, its writing style, historical inaccuracies, alleged author - it was more important to record 45th phone call to the PR of some French construction company and 29th failed attempt of reaching the owner of some Turkish construction company.

This documentary manages to be too long and boring and at the same time convey very little information.