Angel on the Right Film Difficulty Ranking: 3
Why Watch Angel on the Right?
- To visit a rural Tajik town far away from centralized control
- If you like films that star hot headed men
- For a surprise appearance of magical realism
From: Tajikistan, Asia Watch: Trailer, Amazon Prime, JustWatch Next: Redemption, White Sun, Witnesses
Setting the Scene
Angel on the Right starts with Hamro returning home from Russia to his remote birth town in Tajikistan to say goodbye to his dying mother. One of the first things you notice is how isolated the town is. His taxi crosses plains and deserts to get there. The town itself also looks like it’s cut off from the rest of the world, a bit like the rural Moldovan town in Anishoara. The houses look a bit dilapidated and the streets dusty. Because of the town’s isolation, the mayor has complete autonomy to do whatever he likes. As a result issues in this town are settled between the residents or by street justice.
Hamro the Hothead
We don’t know much about Hamro’s past: what he was doing in Russia and why he left Tajikistan. However, it’s clear that the people at home are wary of his violent streak. In one scene, he enters the local tea room and everyone stops talking and stares at him in silence. But he’s also fearful of people trying to exact vengeance on him. As soon as he steps out of the taxi he picks up a handful of rocks for self defense. He’s drowning in debts to the local mayor who tries to use his debt to get Hamro’s family house and force him back out of town.
Magical Realism and Fate
The most interesting parts of Angel on the Right are the brief episodes of magical realism. The most obvious example is when Hamro’s mother visits the mayor to change the day of her death. Whilst the mayor insists it’s not possible as ‘he is not God,’ he agrees to swap the day of her death with another resident to bring her judgment day sooner. An earlier death means he can get his hands on Hamro’s family home sooner.
The scene positions the mayor as the all powerful leader of the town. However, his denial of being God hints that he’s more in line with an anti-God or malevolent power. This scene is included to emphasize the incorrigible corruption of town mayors across Tajikistan that fortifies their mayoral positions across the country.
What to Watch Next
If you’d like to watch another film about an ex-con/outcast returning home to his dying mother, but gets sucked back into a life of crime, check out Redemption from Mozambique. White Sun from Nepal also features a story of an outcast returning home for the funeral of his dead parent.
Or if you’re interested in watching more films set within bleak provincial towns littered with corruption and crime, check out Witnesses and Time to Die. Witnesses is a Croatian film set during the Croat-Serbian War in which the law has disappeared whilst Time to Die is a Mexican Western in which one outlaw returns home and is targeted by a local man waiting for his revenge.
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