Several days in the life of Shigabutdin Marjani

In Tatarstan — it's cold

“The Teacher” is the story of how Shigabutdin was born in the Zakazanye region to the family of mullah Bagautdin, lost his mother early, and then went to study in Bukhara and Samarkand, only to return and receive a final instruction from his father. In the film, Tatarstan got the winter scenes, when severe frosts of -35 prevailed outside (even though Marjani set out on his journey in May), while Uzbekistan was responsible for the scenes in December–January (also, by the way, not particularly warm). Each side allocated 40 million rubles for filming.

“The Teacher” has two directors. On the Tatarstan side, it is Ramil Tukhvatullin. An actor, businessman, and official, he once again returned to his beloved pursuit of the early 2000s — cinema — joining the project at a late stage. From Uzbekistan, the director is Ilkhom Mukhammadibrokhimov. The production involved the film company “Film Fusion PRO” based at the Mosfilm film concern. This is its third Tatarstan film after “The Silent Cuckoo” and “The Mountain of Lovers.”

All the most interesting things will come later

The film has a voice-over, which gives it a documentary quality and helps somewhat structure the information about Marjani's life from birth to age 31, when he returned to his homeland. All of this is set to the epic music of Timur Milyukov, who managed to find a balance between classical and ethnic music, showing the hero's coming of age through the soundtrack.

Even during filming, the authors said they would like to show everything that happened to the theologian in Kazan — in a second part! And that, of course, is the richest part of his life in terms of events and achievements.

The greatness of Marjani is not easy to explain without using theological terms and the context of the era. But in the case of his later years, everything is clearer: imam of the First Cathedral Mosque, reformer of teaching methods and views on religious dogma, great historian, idol of youth... In the end, a man who married four times, was removed from his position several times, and openly entered into disputes with the Kazan merchant class, for which his madrasah was once burned down.

The story of the young Marjani in cinema would be better described by the phrase “He was there too.” “The Teacher” is distinguished by a fragmented narrative. It is a chain of episodes that illustrate the thoughts of the film's authors, while many of them have no resolution.

For example, a certain sorcerer-shaman appears in the picture, who also teaches children the old way, exclusively in Arabic. Because of this, the life of one of the boys living in the same village as young Shigabutdin (Amir Sagdiev) ends tragically. But this has nothing to do with the life of the future hazrat. His father enters into a verbal conflict with the charlatan, but no more than that.

And in Bukhara, where the grown-up hero (Bulat Gataullin) travels, for example, the local emir suddenly appears. He has some kind of misunderstanding with Marjani's teacher. Having outlined this problem, the emir departs. The episode is over.

Why Salavat Yuzeyev is a wonderful screenwriter

It is known that initially Salavat Yuzeyev was supposed to be the screenwriter and director of the film, but something happened, and other people took charge of the process. Yuzeyev notes which fragments survived from his text — and these are the most curious episodes of the picture.

For example, this is the story of how Marjani was deceived on the way to Bukhara. They told him they would lead him to water, but he would not drink a drop. That is exactly what happened. A minor story, but with obvious irony — even a great, albeit future, scholar can be fooled. Yuzeyev also introduced a love line, bringing Shigabutdin together with the daughter of the head of the madrasah. Nothing dangerous, just cautious glances and reading poetry to oneself, but after that you feel a little more warmth toward the hero.

Star of the Kariev Theatre Bulat Gataullin had previously appeared in another film involving “Film Fusion PRO” — “The Mountain of Lovers.” In “The Teacher," he played a scene with a deceiver while experiencing incredible pain — he had problems with his meniscus that worsened during filming. He later underwent surgery and now cannot actively perform on stage. Gataullin tries to squeeze everything out of the role, and his rapid coming of age within the hour of screen time allotted to him is especially good. He is also good when he flies into a rage, accusing the Bukhara madrasahs of scholasticism.

But the problem is that this outburst of emotion happens suddenly. To assemble the entire plot in your head, you have to stop the film, write down the terms and names spoken... For example, the importance for Marjani of another reformer — his fellow countryman ‘Abd al-Nasir Kursavi — is shown several times. He also studied in Bukhara, criticized blind adherence to authorities, and asserted that the search for truth is the duty of every Muslim.

And so Kursavi is openly discussed by a group of venerable elders, showing how respected he is in these parts and in his homeland. Without mentioning that long before Marjani's arrival, this man was to be executed in Bukhara.

Will the Russian ummah go to see “The Teacher”?

In short, in the film “The Teacher," Shihab-hazrat is a man of the word and of science. True, this is spoken of more through the assessments of other people or quotes from books, but not through concrete deeds. There are no scenes, for example, of his acquaintance with Sufism, when Marjani became a student of three sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order. Instead, there are many theological dialogues, one of which nevertheless concludes toward the finale with a universal maxim: faith is that by which one is liberated.

From the point of view of milestones for Tatar cinema — and the film will also be released in the Tatar language — this is a great achievement. 1,113 people were involved in the work on “The Teacher.” The figure to whom the film is dedicated will clearly attract a certain number of viewers, possibly even quite a few. It already has support from the clergy. At the same time, the producers and directors of the picture avoided answering who the audience for this film is. The film now faces a long festival period; for example, right at the screening it was invited to the UK.

After watching “The Teacher," the viewer will learn what tawhid is, will be reminded of the hadith about the prophet and the cat, will appreciate Bagautdin's (Irek Khafizov) patchy beard and the expressive teachers from Uzbekistan, and how easy it is to film a madrasah on the Registan. But without proper zeal, it is not easy to watch “The Teacher” to the end.

At the filming stage, there was an idea that “The Teacher” should attract Russian Muslims to cinema halls. The authors have a positive example — “Paradise Under the Feet of Mothers” from Kyrgyzstan, which in 2024 in Russian distribution, including CIS countries, grossed 84 million rubles, and its second part — 202 million. To be fair, we note that this picture has a much clearer melodramatic plot.

Producer Milyausha Aytuganova adds to this list the film “Muhammad — The Prophet of the Almighty”: “There are very many Muslims in Russia, but there is very little content like this. If we focus on promotion among the Muslim audience, the release could be encouraging. And the distribution territory is predominantly outside Russia.”