Tourism in Uzbekistan

Tashkent International Film Festival

One of the most hotly anticipated events in the capital is the return of the Tashkent International Film Festival from 28 September to 3 October, featuring a programme of international and rare archive films.
At the Centre for Contemporary Arts, an early 20th-century power station imaginatively transformed into an arts hub and opened in 2019, they’re hosting a year of events focusing on art, cinema, music, architecture and performance.

Museum

• In 2022, art lovers will also be able to revisit the State Museum of Arts. Housing works once belonging to Prince Nikolai Romanov by Russian painters such as Repin, Bryullov and Tropinin, as well as 250 plus paintings by pre-revolutionary artists from Central Asia.
• The museum’s 1970s Brutalist buildings have been reimagined by Japanese architect Tadao to include a remarkable new complex that will more than double the size of the museum.

Medieval meets modern

Birthplace of the ferocious 14th-century Turco-Mongol warrior Timur (or Tamerlane), Uzbekistan fell under Russian rule in the 19th century before becoming part of the Soviet Union, along with other ‘stans’ such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Medieval and Soviet traditions have become entwined with the modern: the roadside pomegranate seller who squeezes gallons of fresh juice from an old Soviet press; the Samarkand baker making flat, round loaves in a tandoor clay oven in the centuries-old method; and the working donkeys, tottering under huge stacks of cotton, one of Uzbekistan’s most important crops.
In the past few years, new roads and high-speed rail links have started being built, Hiltons and Hyatts opening apace and strict regulations relaxed.

Religion in Uzbekistan

Although Islam – introduced by the Arabs in the 8th century and all but suppressed under the Communists – is the dominant religion in Uzbekistan, it is a much more liberal version than that practised in the Middle East (women aren’t required to cover up, for example). The country’s diverse ethnic mix includes the majority Uzbeks, as well as Tatars, Tajiks and Russians.