Mirages of Love

20s south of Kyrgyzstan. Platoon commander Abysh Isaev arrives at the military garrison. His task, together with the red commander Valentin Ugryumov, is to stop the bloodshed and destruction perpetrated by Shaanazar’s Basmach detachment, and to return the farmers to their homes.

Ulan follows a sailor whose marriage disintegrates and longs for his younger days on horseback

The film is dedicated to the beauty and majesty of its homeland, the traditions of the Kyrgyz people, and the everyday life and work of its people. The story is narrated by an old man who has lived a long life. As if looking back with a thoughtful gaze, he remembers all the cherished moments and beauty he will soon have to leave behind. Yet despite the looming tragedy, there is no sense of pessimism — every memory, every frame shines with a hopeful warmth, like life itself. The old shepherd’s character and spirit, reflected in his eyes, will live on in his grandchildren, preserving both the beauty of the land and the deep love he felt for it.

Kyrgyzstan, the 1920s. In a remote mountain village, against the will of the local elites and in defiance of centuries-old traditions, a woman—Urkuya Salieva—is elected chair of the agricultural cooperative. Salieva is determined to build a new life with an uncompromising resolve against anyone who would obstruct the poor, a stance unusual for a woman.

A cinematic ode to the power of the equine form.

During World Word II, the difficult construction of a railroad through the Boom ravine at Kant-Rybachie. One of the construction workers then takes a train ride along the road he helped build.

The Russian Descendant of the Snow Leopard is based on a famous Kirghizian folktale. Apparently the Kirghizian folks had plenty of time to tell this story: to print a full synopsis would result in a novelette. Essentially, the story involves a proud group of highland hunters called the Snow Leopards, who in order to survive a brutal winter must request help from the Lowland people. The price for this assistance is the hand of the Snow Leopard's daughter, who is promised in marriage to a wealthy Lowland trader. During the Springtime wedding celebration, the trader becomes fascinated by a stranger who wins all the athletic contests. This "male" contestant turns out to be a woman, who has arrived to seek freedom for her imprisoned husband. The subsequent romance between the trader and the beautiful stranger results in disaster and bloodshed for both the Snow Leopards and the Lowlanders.

The forty-year-old commentator, summing up his life and realizing that his well-being is purely external and essentially nothing significant has been done, leaves for his native village, where, he hopes, he will be able to take a step towards his true vocation.

Bakai is an old shepherd who lives in the country while his children have long grown accustomed to life in the city. When his youngest son pays him a visit, Bakai wants him to stay and help with the rigors of rural living.

On a frozen and forbidding shoreline of northern Sakhalin Island, to the north of Japan, live the Nyvkh people, whose austere, heroic struggle for survival depends solely on their ability to hunt the seal and to fish. This blunt glimpse into their quarters, animistic rituals, and daily (and nightly) lives has all the appearance of a well-shot documentary but is in fact a scripted film with convincing special effects, based on a novella of the same title by the gifted and controversial Soviet Kirghiz writer, Chingiz Aitmatov. "Dog running at the edge of the sea" is what the Nyvkhs call the forbidding place they have domesticated as their home, husbanding and speaking of it by means of myths and "poetry of the concrete" with which they commemorate their savage lives.

A chronicle of a few days in a small family, a story about the difficulties of human contacts, the complexity of love. The image of red apples - strong and clear, profound and lucid. Okeyev's "apple" bears a special meaning. Juices of the earth and sun, it is a lyrical symbol of happiness and harmony.

An idealistic high school graduate goes to work on a state farm on the Kyrgyz steppe, only to clash with its authoritarian leader.

A boy raises a wolf cub, but when released into the wild, it returns to attack him.

A young newspaper correspondent, Zharkynbay, arrives in a mountain village after receiving a letter reporting an unprecedented undertaking - the milking of wild yaks…