Righetti portrays the wane of a nation-sized personality cult located between Kazakhstan and Iran, in the country of Turkmenistan. Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in 2006, was the nation’s President for Life. An orphan who survived to rise through the ranks of the communist party, Niyazov eventually became leader of the nation that declared its independence in late 1991, as the unity of the Soviets began to splinter.
