Drama

To Get to Heaven First, You Have to Die

Twenty-year-old Kamal has been married for a few months but his wife is still a virgin. Learning that there is nothing physically wrong with him after visiting a doctor, Kamal sets off to town to search for another woman. The city is full of them but Kamal is still unable to meet anyone, until a chance encounter on a bus. But it looks as if this accidental meeting will take Kamal much farther than he was prepared to go… By the director of ‘Angel on the Right’. —Celluloid Dreams

Release Date : 2006-10-04

Language :RussianTajik

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Elzévir FilmsPandora FilmSAGA ProductionCiné ManufactureSouth BridgeMEDIA Programme of the European UnionPusan Promotion PlanCelluloid DreamsGoteberg Films

Production Country : BelgiumFranceGermanyRussiaSouth KoreaSwedenSwitzerlandTajikistan

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Kamal

Original Name : Khurshed Golibekov

Gender : Male

Character Name : Vera

Original Name : Dinara Drukarova

Gender : Female

Character Name : Vera's husband

Original Name : Maruf Pulodzoda

Gender : Male

Character Name : Said Shah

Original Name : Djonibek Mourodov

Gender : Male

Character Name : Amie Said Shah

Original Name : Shakhnosa Khodjaeva

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Davron Alimatov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Fatkhullo Abdulloev

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Natalia Fedotova

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Khairi Burieva

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Munisa Ganieva

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Malika Baratova

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Rufat Negmatov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Yelena Loginova

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Mukhamadjon Negmatov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Zarrinakhon Olimova

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Kim Kvang

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Gairat Khamrokulov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Khakimdjon Akhmedov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Anatoli Nesmyshlenov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Susanna Saledova

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Vladimir Marsalski

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Gavkhar Tochiboeva

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Vakhid Otobekov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Elena Kolotukhina

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Viktoria Dmitrieva

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Nargis Ashrapova

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Firdavs Ashrapov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Khurshed Akramov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Mirzorakhmon Mirzosalomov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Daler Safarov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Dzhamshed Odinaev

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Furkat Sattorov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Adualim Ismoilov

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Abdumin Abduller

Gender : Male

Character Name :

Original Name : Olga Kovalyova

Gender : Female

Reviews

CRCulver

@CRCulver

2021-06-23

To Get to Heaven... (2006) is a film by Jamshed Usmonov set in the director's native Tajikistan. Kamal (Khurshed Golibekov) is a young man who has recently married, but he suffers from impotence and has been unable to consummate his marriage. After three months, he visits a doctor and then undertakes to learn the art of love from some older woman in the capital. The first half of the film has him stalking various women around Dushanbe. This odyssey in an American film would probably have been portrayed in a goofy underdog fashion, but Kamal's attempts are creepy, though we do feel his pain. About halfway through the film, Kamal ends up sleeping with the wife (Dinara Drukarova) of a thug (Maruf Pulodzoda). This lowlife finds out, he doesn't mind as he had been separated from his wife for some time anyway, and takes Kamal under his wing as they burgle their way around town. After witnessing the full extent of his partner's brutality, Kamal turns on him in a bloody fashion, which happens to cure his sexual dysfunction. All in all, I can't recommend To Get to Heaven to general audiences. This isn't the first film I've seen by a young director that begins in one way and then transitions too suddenly into mobsters and violence. Yes, I get the Oedipal allusions and the probing of the male psyche, but the plot arc chosen for this study just screams "immature scriptwriter". The cinematography is also unimaginative. I could compliment only two aspects, which will probably only interest a rather niche audience. I was bound for Tajikistan in less than a week as I watched this, and there are few internationally available films from the country, so I guess To Get to Heaven was useful as a glimpse of Tajikistan. The acting by Drukarova and Pulodzoda was competent, and perhaps the same could be said for Golibekov if the character he portrays weren't too cringingly awkward to really appreciate.