Well, they left a note for the unknowing viewer right at the beginning of the film that this is the greatest love story of all times. Oh yes, they quoted Louis Aragon commenting on the original Chinghiz Aitmatov novel. So much modesty, really. I thought that was a bit like Neo in 'The Matrix' gesturing to the agents 'c'mon'. I have seen a lot of beautiful films about love, from Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 'Gabbeh' to Takeshi Kitano's 'Dolls', so, having been 'programmed' by good directors, I probably pass for an agent in this comparison. Unfortunately, I have to report to you that this film was no Neo, rather just a scared, confused and powerless Mr. Anderson. No way to do an adaptation really. A lot of totally superficial narration when the images should communicate everything (and they do, because the cinematography is done well, most of the time). No good dialogues to fill the time when the narrator shuts up. And Jamila's great love interest, who I suppose could be quite a complex character in the book, is portrayed way too weakly here for you not think of him as a rather simple one. To me he seemed like some '80s pop star who suddenly found himself in 1944 Kyrgyzstan through a time storm or what. First he was looking like 'whatthehell', then seconds later 'oops
this Jamila is beautiful, it's not so bad that time storm came my way'.
In fact, this greatest love story, for as much as they show to you about it, looks fairly trivial. You could describe Jamila's and her partner's motivations in very simple terms. That's not bad at all in itself but the film-makers are trying hard to make the audience think they are watching something a lot more complicated. If I would know only about 'Titanic' and this film, 'Titanic' would still be the biggest love story to me. Although for a second try I may watch 'Jamila' as a silent film, perhaps it will work better then.
