Said Bargandzhia

An animated film on the Abkhaz legend of Abraskil is going to be released in Abkhazia.  The well-known opera singer and artist Astamur Kvitsinia, the author of popular comics on Abkhaz mythology, is working on the creation of the cartoon.  Based on the comics, Kvitsinia now creates a cartoon with the working title “Heroes of Abraskil.”  The film, like the comics earlier, will be released in the Abkhaz language.

Abraskil is an invincible and proud hero.  He was born to be the protector of his people from strangers, grew up a strong and hardy man.  Having obtained the horse Arash, Abraskil began to fulfill his destiny.  According to legend, over time, he began to confront not only enemies, but also the gods, for which he was punished and exhausted.  This was used by the enemies of Abraskil, who chained the hero and his horse in a cave.

“The well-known plot is taken as the basis, but I completely redid it,” said the animator.  - It [turns out] to be more a comedy.  Both children and adults will enjoy the cartoon.  It’s planned duration is up to 17 minutes.”

According to Astamur Kvitsinia, creating a cartoon is a very difficult and lengthy process.  At the same time, he had already outlined the timeline by which the cartoon should be ready - May next year.

“It's hard to make a cartoon without a studio.  This sphere is not developed at all in our country, which complicates the already difficult process.  Original music will be written for the cartoon, Denis Aruhaa (a well-known Abkhaz musician - ed.) is dealing with this,” Kvitsinia added.

At the moment, work is underway on voicing the main characters, one of which will “speak” with the voice of the famous Abkhaz KVN comedian Timur Arshba, nicknamed “Horror”.

“I am glad that an interesting cartoon in the Abkhaz language will appear in Abkhazia.  And, of course, I could not but agree to the proposal to voice one of the heroes.  I myself look forward to the release of the cartoon, we will watch it with children.  I am sure that Astamur will succeed perfectly”, - Arshba commented on his participation in the project.

The characters of the cartoon are also voiced by actors Ruslan Shakaya, Mikhail Tskua, Kesou Khagba and Eric Mikaa. The famous Abkhaz actor Dzhambul Zhordania acted as a sound engineer.

Astamur Kvitsinia’s first comic book about Abraskil was released in 2009.  At that time, support for the publication of the comic was provided by the Abkhaz Language Development Fund (since January 2016, it was reorganized into the State Committee on Language Policy - ed.).  The comic book won the attention of readers and became popular, after which Kvitsinia released the second comic book, also about the Abkhaz legend “Napkha Kiagua”.  Currently, in parallel with the creation of the cartoon, Astamur Kvitsinia continues to work on creating new comics.  Some of them are ready, but not yet released.