Oqlanmagan: The Unexonerated
When Uzbekistan declared independence from the USSR in 1991, Communist Party First Secretary Islam Karimov became president. He would continue to hold that title until his death in 2016.
During the perestroika period in the 1980s the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic experienced a revival of national and Islamic identity; both became a core of pro-democracy resistance to Soviet rule. Despite publicly embracing democracy and Islam, Karimov saw both movements as a threat to his continued power.
In the early 1990s Karimov's government arrested thousands of pro-democracy and human rights activists and journalists. Beginning in 1998, Uzbekistan arrested tens of thousands of practicing Muslims, imams, and citizens engaged in Islamic study groups. Thousands were tortured in custody until they signed pre-written confessions that led to decades in prison on terrorism and treason charges.
Following Karimov’s death in 2016, his successor, Shavkat Mirizoyev, acknowledged for the first time the existence of a blacklist against former prisoners, their social contacts and extended family. He announced that more than 18,000 people formerly designated as “extremists” would be removed from that list and released from prison or probation.
This film is one of the first attempts to tell their stories.
Press coverage in English:
Coverage in Uzbek:
"Oqlanmagan" - O'zbekistonda ekstremist deb tamg'alanganlar haqida hujjatli film