A Donkey Will (by Majid Al-Remaihi)

In a sunlit courtyard framed by intricate tiled arcades, a lone figure seemingly from the past stands before a bronze statue of a smiling rider on a donkey, it's Nasreddin. Dappled light from a nearby tree softens the scene, creating a reflective, almost surreal moment as the figure silently regards the statue.

‘A Donkey Will’ is a film that reimagines the folkloric figure of Nasreddin, or Juha or Efendi, a jester and a wise man wanderer (played by Anhar Salem), roaming through present-day Bukhara after losing his donkey. The film unfolds through puppetry, documentary fragments, and absurdist performance as it fixates on the muse of contrariness and the relationship that sets the world’s balance.

Presented as a two-channel installation in the context of the first Bukhara Biennial, curated by Diana Campbell.

Writtent & Directed by Majid Al-Remaihi

Juha/Nasreddin by Anhar Salem

Featured poem by Hamza Kashgari

Assistant Director, Producer & Editor Gonçalo Lamas

Cinematography & Colour grading Guillaume Delsert

1st Camera Assistant Sergei Galin

2nd Camera Assistant Otabek Tilavoldiev

Lighting Technician Valentin Minosyan

Lighting Assistant MuhammadSodih Alimov

Focus Puller Sardor Umarbekov

Digital Imaging Technician (DIT) Elyor Amanov

Sound Recordist Dmitriy Timonin

Boom Operator Zabixulla Shaxaldarov

Costume Designer Zuxra Ganiyeva

Assistant Costume Designer Ravshanjon Rashidov

Props & Art Jamoliddin Ravshanov

Sound Editor Marcelo Tavares

General Producer (Uzbekistan) Muzaffar Yusupov

Line Producer MuhammadYusuf Shavkatov

Line Producer Assistant Fayyoz Buzrukxo'jayev

Production Runner Rafael Gabdurakhmanov

Production Runner Ilxom Abdulatipov

Camera Car Driver Vladislav Gaziyev

Transport / Van Driver Rakhmatilla Akhmedov

In a narrow earthen alley, a person in layered traditional dress leans against a weathered wall, eyes closed and lips pursed as if whistling. Warm sunlight and patches of shadow fall across the adobe buildings, while an open blue window draws the eye into the stillness of the scene. In a wide, sunlit square on the edge of a developing neighborhood, a solitary figure – Nasreddin – pauses beside a monumental sculpture of a mythical winged horse rearing atop a dry fountain. The vast blue sky and sparse surroundings lend the scene a surreal, dreamlike sense of isolation. In a sunlit park framed by trees and patterned architecture, two people – a slim man in a short-sleeve short and with a white hat and a Nasreddin figure in tradditional wear – sit on a wooden bench in a quiet, contemplative pause while passersby and a statue of a man on top of a donkey animate the background. In a dim room lit by club-like lights, a young looking Nasreddin in traditional attire sits curled beside a table, holding a teacup as shadows and a vague stare, stone walls, and a painted mural create an intimate, dreamlike atmosphere. Under a dark night sky, a solitary figure (Nasreddin) stands with a confused expression in a narrow street beside crumbling walls and a distant mosque with a blue dome.

Gonçalo Lamas is a writer, filmmaker, artist and designer, born in Porto. After briefly studying film in Porto and Bournemouth, he attended the Fine Art course (media department) at Central Saint Martins, graduating in 2017. In between, he spent a semester at the Universität der Künste Berlin, where he joined Hito Steyerl's class and the Research Center for Proxy Politics.

In 2020, with a grant from the Porto City Council, he produced Boeing Nº 737-800 in F#m, staged over four dates at Culturgest Porto. An artist's book containing the play's text was launched at the 6th Artists' Self-Publisher’s Fair in London. His first work for cinema, the experimental documentary Granary Squares, shot in 2015, premiered in the National Competition of the 2021 edition of IndieLisboa. After several anthology appearances with Pilot Press, like Queer Anthology of Rage and Modern Queer Poets, some times zero hours was the title of his first poetry pamphlet, published by SPAM Press, Glasgow, in 2022. He is currently finishing his first poetry collection, titled Emergency Contact. Until 2024, he was part of the study programme at Le Fresnoy, in France, where he filmed a condensed film adaptation of Andromaque, written by Jean Racine in 1667, which he translated himself into English.

Among many parallel activities, he develops websites for artists and cultural organisations, teaches design strategies at the University of the Arts London, and was a podcast editor on the news platform Novara Media, between 2021 and 2023.

In film and theatre, he has built up a string of collaborations as assistant director with artists such as Alle Dicu, João Nunes Monteiro, João Reis Moreira and Majid Al-Remaihi. With the latter, he is currently writing a film about the final days of Afonso de Albuquerque, the commander who in 1515 seized Hormuz, throttling the very strait that still brings the world to a standstill today.

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