In Tajikistan, we believe that if we dream of something on the 40th night after our child’s birth, this dream will most probably come true. This tradition is called ‘chila’. When my baby was forty days, it was during the civil war. It was in 1992. That night I had a dream that militants with rifles came to our house. One of them hit me on the head and I started to fall in. I was holding my baby. The militants rushed to rob the house. They also said that they would take us all away and kill. All of a sudden, the whole house was on fire. In the corridor, I saw my grandfather. He was standing in the flames. I tried to put out the fire, but with no success. My grandfather was silent. Then the militants pushed us into a bus; they were supposed to drive us to the committee building and kill there.
After some time, in the same corridor I had seen in a dream, my grandfather died indeed. It made me really scared! After six months, three buses full of militants arrived in our village. It was the time when the political fights were in their full swing; they were all settling old scores. The militants rushed us towards the bus but a man wearing a militia uniform helped us. He was from the local committee and for some reason decided to protect us. His name was Rustam… Somehow, he managed to get us out. Soon after those events, my sister came to the village and we all left for Dushanbe. She kept saying that we were in great danger.
Madirova Gulizo, Tajikistan
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It is the beginning of yet another summer day, early, early hours of dawn are breaking. The land is still wrapped in heavy mist. I approach a river. It looks like the river where I learned how to swim, but it is much wider and I can't quite see what is on the other side. Its waters are warm.
The river flows gently carrying my grandfather and grandmother on its surface. I recognize them by the light and love in their eyes. My brother and I join them in their swim. The stream is lulling us. We just let it take us wherever it is that we are going. Joy radiates from our faces as we continue to rejoice in this Presence. We are together and this togetherness seems eternal.
One of the last words my grandmother said was: ‘Live your life so that we can meet again’. This dream was a clear assurance that she has made it to the other shore and hardly anything else in my life feels as real as this dream. Love never ends.
Arta Skuja, Latvia
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I am in Germany, in a large, old palace. The grass grows inside the palace and there are lots of various rooms. When I enter one of them, I realize that it is a prison. A lot of people are being kept there. They are hungry and emaciated. I know that they need to be rescued. I start running around the palace. I know I can save them. I just have to find a book, in which there is a key to the prison door. I rush from one room to another. In one of them, there are a lot of rabbits, the entire colony – they are white and fluffy. So, imagine: one room is dark and it serves as a prison. The other one is bright and full of cute little rabbits. I continue walking and in yet another room, I meet Hitler. I am about to kill him, but I don’t do it. I rush out and keep running around the palace again. After some time, I come back to the same room, in which I met Hitler, and I can see that the rabbits are eating him. They are all covered with blood and they are devouring his body. Under his bed, there was supposed to be a trunk, and the key was in that trunk. I woke up exactly at that moment.
Chinara Majidova, Azerbaijan
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I often dream that I have control over my dreams. These are good dreams. I can do anything. For example, I can kill presidents in them.
Chinara Majidova, Azerbaijan
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I saw myself coming out of the church. It was a wedding, my wedding. I saw myself going down the stairs of the church in a wedding dress and behind me, there was a man (a man, I was in a relationship with at that moment). As I was walking down the stairs, I felt water under my feet. Actually, I’m quite afraid of water. I had the feeling I was being pulled into a water whirlpool. I saw myself getting pulled deeper and deeper. I opened my eyes and I was underwater. I saw the image of a woman whirling underwater. I saw myself in this whirlpool and then I woke up.
It was a sign that I had to end the relationship. I ended it exactly at Easter and when I walked out of the church on that day and was going down the same steps as in the dream, it started to snow.
Sarmite Skuja, Latvia
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I’m in my daughter-in-law’s room, I am holding a newborn. All of a sudden, I start to chop the baby into pieces. And nobody cares! Although there are lots of people in the house, everybody is going there and back, nobody pays attention, nobody says a word. Only when our neighbor Khojit pays us a visit, he starts shouting at me: ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you chopping this poor thing?!’. Then I woke up…
Malika Raforova, Tajikistan
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One of my legs is sewn on with a thread; it looks like a stitch. The second one is sewn on with hair; it looks like whiskers.
Jumabiek Mohidinov
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I was in Dushanbe, in a street. When a stranger was passing me, I paid attention to a watch on his wrist. Without much thought, I caught his hand. It was the watch that belonged to the person who is the dearest in the whole world to me, my husband! When I was trying to get it back, the man said: ‘I have given you the answer!”. Then I saw my husband. He said I had done wrong. He said that he had given the watch to the stranger as that man was his best friend.
My husband perished the following day…
It was during the civil war. My husband died in January; it was really cold then. The family said that he had been murdered. We went out to look for the body.
Odinaeva Malokhat, Tajikistan
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I am walking toward the river. Nothing there. Some weed. Somebody is burning old junk, newspapers… I am standing by the riverbank and suddenly I am overwhelmed by this total, absolute fear! I feel as if something was about to absorb, to devour my soul. It was when I woke up.
Baiba Bucenice, Latvia
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In my dream, I’m coming to some desolate, forgotten place. After a while, guests arrive – the president with a delegation of his officials, his wife, and children from orphanages. First, we take a walk in the area and then we come back to an abandoned house. In the kitchen, there is a large cake. The president goes somewhere with another man who is not Azerbaijani. They take children as well. I go to the kitchen to cut the cake and I see that the president’s wife is crying. I ask her: ‘Why are you crying? You are the First Lady!’ and she answers: ‘My husband beats me’. ‘You’re pretty. Get yourself a lover’, I say. And we start cutting the cake, but it gets really messy. It’s ugly. We offer it to the children and I feel sorry for them because we were walking for the whole day and we gave them nothing to eat but this ugly cake. The president was not in the house any longer. It was already in the abandoned house. In a village. I often see the president in my dreams.
Chinara Majidova, Azerbaijan
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My father lives in Russia. He works there. I had a dream that he came back home on a bicycle! He was riding his blue bicycle along the main road in the village. I noticed him and I started to call him, but he paid no attention to me at all. He was riding further and further, and then he turned into a totally different street. I ran after him and when he finally stopped, when I caught up with him, I asked: ‘Why have you come here?’. And he said: ‘I wanted and so I came’. He was wearing an ordinary t-shirt, he had neither a suitcase nor a backpack. He seemed as if he was running away from something. He was in a hurry.
Szachriszo, Tajikistan
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I often dream of asphalt roads - beautiful, even, with a surface as smooth as a mirror. I know that they lead to some regional city, to Qubodiyon or Dushanbe, although I cannot see the landscapes on either of the sides. I only see the road, along which I am driving. A long, long road. Sometimes the road branches, but it doesn’t matter which turn I’ll take – right or left – because after this dream someone from my family always visits me anyway.
Saidova Buldosta, Tajikistan
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I had a dream that it was the end of the world. A nightmare! Everything that existed on Earth turned upside down. Strong winds were blowing and I was there all alone. I was clutching a tree. The wind was blowing everything away from the Earth. Only this brave tree of mine was standing there boldly. Stars and meteorites were falling from the sky. The Earth started cracking, the sun disappeared, I couldn’t see anything. I was completely alone. And the wind was so strong! I didn’t want to live any longer.
I was going to visit God. Soon after I appealed to Him, an angel descended to the Earth. I wanted God to strengthen me and increase my abilities, but He told me I had enough power and possibilities to help people; others did not have what I had. He also put me to the test. He sent me to climb a mountain, explaining that as soon as I reach the peak, I would comprehend what I should do further. On top of the mountain, I was to learn the fate that awaited one man. When I got there, I immediately fell asleep and this is what I saw in my dream: a man riding a horse reaches the top of the mountain. On the mountain top, there’s a jug of water.
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The man drinks some water and rides away. But he leaves a bag with money behind. After a while, a young man appears and takes the bag. Then, a blindman comes to the top of the mountain. As he is performing salat, the horseman returns. He is looking for his moneybag. He accuses the blindman of theft, but the latter says: ‘I am blind, I cannot see, how could I steal your money?’. But the horseman takes out a sword and decapitates him! In this dream I am Moses and the angel descends from heaven again and asks me what I understood. ‘I didn’t understand a thing!’, I say. Then he akss: ‘And what did you see in your dream?’. ‘I didn’t see anything but God’, I answer. Then God explains the meaning behind what I had seen. It turned out that the young man who took the bag of money was the son of a slave. The slave worked for the horseman. The horseman had not paid the slave for his work. That’s why God made him forget the moneybag so that the slave’s son could take it. I asked God why the blindman had had to die. He explained that the blindman’s father had killed the horseman’s father in the past. ‘Do you understand now? I am the God of all creation, but I also remember all human deeds. And this is what it will be till the end of the world’, He said.
Then I ascended to heaven.
Hasim Nazarov, Tajikistan
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I lived somewhere in the countryside and I was in the garden. All of a sudden, Stalin appeared there together with his old and trusted comrade (tovariš). He said that we would make a fire and cook some soup, the tomato and beaver's tail soup. I became very suspicious about the idea and I wished I had no connections with this monster whatsoever. Then Stalin approached me and said: ‘Actually, I am not that evil. Can you forgive me?’. And at that moment, my dream ended.
Arta Skuja, Latvia
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Photos: Adam Pańczuk
Camera: Adam Pańczuk
Directed and written: Adam Pańczuk
Photo edit and sequencing: Adam Pańczuk
Graphic design: Paweł Pogoda
Editing: Barbara Chojewska
Read by Magdalena Alexander
Translated by Malwina Żyła, Aleksandra Szymczyk, Anete Skuja
Starring:
Ana Kurtubadze
Nino Gomarteli
Gocha Kakauridze
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