Synopsis:
After her husband mysteriously disappears, all the hardships of survival in the cold winter period in the far away village in Kazakhstan have to be carried out by Mariam, the mother of four small kids. To save the situation, she is forced to make some fatal decisions, but also to rediscover her femininity. When everything seems to start running better, her husband suddenly returns as if nothing has happened. Can the previous life flow be restored now?Read More »
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In the rural Soviet-era Kazakh village of Bazarbaï in the Kzylordinskye district, a reticent and impassive boy named Jasulan (Jasulan Asauov) watches his father ride away on horseback into the arid frontier before sneaking into the utility shed, activating the house portable generator, and returning to the living room – past the silent, disapproving gaze of his doting mother in the kitchen – to watch the faint, occasionally distorted black and white image of a Russian language television broadcast. Jasulan’s self-indulgent diversion, however, inevitably proves brief as the power abruptly goes out, having been disconnected by his pragmatic father who has unexpectedly returned home to the sound of the noisy, sputtering engine, and dismissively (and amusingly) scolds the boy for wasting scarce fuel “to see naked women”. Read More »
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Marat works as a personal driver in Almaty, capital of Kazakhstan. When he hits a Mercedes, the nightmare begins. The loan he accepts to pay for the damages puts him at the mercy of a Mafia boss.Read More »
A slice-of-life story on globalised capitalism’s impact on Kazakhstan, its contemporary urban culture, and the lonely road that patrons of the arts walk in a country where art is often overlooked and underappreciated.Read More »
A solitary philosophy student steers his directionless life toward a violent crime, spurred on by a post-Soviet order characterized by growing inequality, institutional corruption and a ruthless ethic. Inspired by Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Official selection of the prestigious Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative.Read More »
Educational film by Darezhan Omirbayev for film schools students.This film shows us how directors are inspiring each other.Read More »
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This visually stunning Kazakh movie tells a tragic tale of absent and misplaced compassion. A young orphan rescues an orphaned wolf cub and lavishes considerable affection on it. His uncle, believing that this “softness” will result in the boy’s being unable to endure the rigors of life on the Kazakh steppes, savagely beats the cub in front of the boy. By the time the grown wolf is released into the wild, it has grown extremely ferocious and it returns and attacks the boy, perhaps because it perceives him as being weak, just as the boy’s uncle did.Read More »
After her father’s untimely death, Saltanat is forced to trade her idyllic countryside life for the cruel city. She has to find money to pay off the large family debt that her father left behind, in order to save her mother from jail. Friends since their village childhood, her loyal, but penniless admirer Kuandyk follows her just to make sure his sweetheart is safe. Saltanat’s uncle introduces her to a possible groom, who promises to pay off her family’s debts. But Saltanat’s hopes are dashed, when she discovers that the men in this city don’t keep their word. When Kuandyk tries to help Saltanat get the money through other ways, he ends up finding himself in more trouble than he bargained for. Although life keeps dealing them bad hands, Saltanat and Kuandyk never give up, no matter what the odds.Read More »
Educational film by Darezhan Omirbayev for film schools students.
AUTOGRAPHS
A series of educational films, “Autographs” is a textbook for students of cinema department, which is dedicated to the works of great authors of word cinema. These films show and explore the most colorful and unique pieces that are typical and repetitive directorial techniques from the film (scenes), which are important in the work of one or another author. Read More »