This study investigates the translation of realia in the English subtitles of Uzbek historical films, focusing on the preservation of national and cultural identity in audiovisual translation. The research is based on a corpus of the Uzbek film Elparvar (lit. translation: People’s Protector, released internationally as Born Out of the Ashes in 2019) and aims to identify the translation procedures employed in rendering culturally specific items into English. The study adopts a linguocultural approach and draws on Vinay and Darbelnet’s model of translation procedures as its theoretical framework. Particular attention is paid to historical-political, military, religious, social, ethnographic, geographical, and anthroponymic realia occurring in the source texts. The findings demonstrate that borrowing, equivalence, adaptation, explicitation, generalization, and omission are the most frequently employed translation procedures. While borrowing and functional equivalence contribute to preserving national colour and historical atmosphere, generalization and adaptation often lead to the neutralization of ethnographic and axiological meanings embedded in culture-specific items. In some cases, omission and simplification result in the loss of pragmatic and emotional effects conveyed in the original dialogues. The study also reveals that the multimodal nature of audiovisual texts and the spatial and temporal constraints of subtitling significantly affect translators’ decisions. It is argued that the combination of borrowing and concise explicitation provides a more effective strategy for preserving cultural specificity and ensuring comprehensibility for target audiences. The results contribute to audiovisual translation studies and provide insights into the translation of culture-bound elements in Uzbek historical films.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
ugli et al. (2026) studied this question.