THE BOTTOMLESS BAG

Once upon a time there lived a Russian grand duke who resided in a resplendent castle and loved nothing more than having a lady-in-waiting tell him stories. Old master Khamdamov whisks his audience away into one such fable. The metaphysical fairy tale told to the duke on this occasion leads deep inside a medieval enchanted forest, which soon becomes the scene of an enigmatic murder – perpetrated against the tsar’s son, who is assailed in a clearing in the company of his wife. There is disagreement regarding the events surrounding the foul deed, the truth remains shrouded in darkness. And if the acrobatic little mushroom children haven’t died off in the meantime, then untold versions of this obscure murder mystery must still exist to this day...
Inspired by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s In a Grove, on which Kurosawa's RASHOMON was based as well, Rustam Khamdamov’s title refers not only to the indefatigable gift of gab displayed by the female courtier – it also opens up a further intertextual connection through the allusion to the tale of the same name from 1001 Nights. With aesthetic precision, Khamdamov’s beguiling black and white images strike a balance between the finest popular folklore of the Russian fairy tale world and its interpretation by means of postmodern Surrealism.