KAZAKH FILM
WHY IS THE SWALLOW'S TAIL FORKED?
(based on a Kazakh folk tale)
Direction and Art Direction - A. Haydarov
Composer - N. Tlendiev
cameraman S. Artemov
sound U. Davletgaliev, Yevangelina Dodonova
animators B. Kalistratov, Galina Dussenko,
Ye. Sultanbekov, F. Mukanov,
Victor Chugunov, E. Beiseitov
Background art: E. Beiseitov, V. Shchukin
voice artist Z. Sharipova
text writer Galina Dussenko
Once there lived a Dragon,
who had beheaded all padishahs,
Carving a den high in the mountains.
He lived for many years as padishah.
But after these years had gone,
old age suddenly arrived,
His powers of old were lost,
and the dragon fell sick.
In the last days of his life,
The Dragon remembered,
the days he was powerful and strong;
the heads he could smash all day long;
The times he could gulp in one swallow;
The ages he would crush and destroy.
The dragon got thinner and thinner,
And became short of breath.
His servants were taken aback,
discussing, without knowing what to do.
In an abyss beyond the cliff,
a cunning fox lived.
He had some skills
at curing illnesses.
He came to the patient,
and took his pulse.
"If you find innocent blood,
your padishah will recover." He said.
Just try everything, and
test it on the bones of this fish.
If the fish is revived by the blood,
the Padishah will also recover by it.
There was a mosquito having a needle beak,
Blood was the only thing he drank,
He got to work immediately,
And set off with the bottle.
Is it hard for a mosquito
to do evil for a cursed oppressor?
Isn't a baby laying in cradle,
The purest living being?
Then he stuck the baby,
and the baby started to cry.
He filled the bottle with the baby's blood,
and see, the fish revived.
If he would deliver it to the Dragon,
the Dragon would recover,
Again he would drown the country in blood,
And turn the world Topsy turvy.
But there now was this swallow bird
who couldn't bare the cruelty it heard.
When hearing the misfortune done,
it really shook his heart and he was gone
... out in search for the mosquito's trail.
Took long ways through wilderness and gale.
Before arriving at the dragon's den
Before delivering the bottle then,
he would scratch out the eye of the bad,
And swallow the mean little gnat.
There is no fight free from danger.
The dragon,
had ripped off the swallows tail,
Since then it was forked, without fail
Thus the delicate swallow,
weak and exhausted fellow,
proved his bravery, tall,
and saved the lives of all.
THE END