Mirroring the myriad confused cultural endeavors surfacing since the fall of the Soviet Union, filmic images of Central Asian women defy easy categorization. The mother figure, the prostitute, and the veiled recluse coexist in discord as Central Asian filmmakers search for their own historical and cultural identities between Islam and post-socialist postmodernism.

Typical of Soviet attitudes toward equal gender participation in the workforce, efforts were made during the burgeoning Central Asian film industry of the 1960s and 1970s to convey mode…