The Adopted Son

Hassan Hussen

Aktan Abdykalikov's simple, clear-eyed poetry finds an elemental form here. Two twin brothers are walking down the road carrying a pail of water, they fight and come to blows, and a bemused older man intervenes and sets them back on their way. It's that simple and it's that lovely. A graduate of the Art School of Kyrghyzstan, Aktan Abdykalyko (or Abdikalikov) first worked as a set designer for Kirgisfilm. After several well-received documentaries and short films, his first feature-length fiction film, Beshkempir, won several awards including the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.

Persecution

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.

Bus Stop

A puzzling fable about human relations inspired by Samuel Beckett (in Kyrgyz, beket means station). At a bus stop amid a snowy winter landscape, people wait. A boy, an adult, and an old man are at first joined by a woman, and then a disruptive drunk.

I Do Not Allow the Catastrophe

The plot is based on events that took place during the severe drought of the early 1970s at the construction of the Toktogul Hydroelectric Power Station. The commissioning of the station's first phase was complicated by the fact that the water needed to start it was also desperately needed by the parched fields. There were many debates (with both personal and professional ambitions involved), and in the end, the problem was solved purely mathematically—rather than by agricultural engineering: salty water from the Kyrgyz Sea was diverted to the fields, while clean mountain river water was directed to the first turbines.

Where's Your Home, Snail?

A river reflects everything without carrying it away. But time — it takes everything away without reflecting anything... A story about teenagers in Kyrgyzstan.

Centaur

Centaur lives a modest life with his family in rural Kyrgyzstan until he abruptly becomes the center of attention when he is caught stealing a racehorse at night. A story inspired by the myth when horses became the wings of men.

Heavenly Nomadic

A family of nomads lives in the remote high mountains of Kyrgyzstan...

Kelin

A woman is led by her family to her new husband's home, to live with, presumably, his elderly mother and younger brother. Despite being forced into the marriage, she discovers that he is not such a bad catch after all but domestic bliss does not last long.

The Light Thief

The main hero of the film is an electrician with a far greater effect on the people around him than his job defines. He is the last link in a huge energetic system and he becomes the binding bridge between the geopolitical problems of post-soviet space and the common people. The economic devastation of the country had an enormous impact on the industrial workers and yet despite the upheaval, these people did not seize to love and suffer, to have and be friends and to enjoy their lives. In particular our resilient electrician, who possesses a wonderful and open heart. He not only brings electric light (which is often out) to the lives of the inhabitants of this small city, but he also spreads the light of love, loyalty, life and mainly laughter.

The Swing

The second film by Kyrgyzstani director Aktan Arym Kubat (then credited by his Russian name Aktan Abdykalykov), it is the first of his autobiographical Kurak ("Quilt") Trilogy, followed by Beshkempir (The Adopted Son, 1998) and The Chimp (2001). Идиллия детства, радости, игры разрушается с возвращением в маленькое горное село моряка. В прекрасный мир девушки, мальчика и юродивого врывается великолепная морская форма с клешами и бескозыркой, и волшебная морская ракушка - источник всех их будущих бед.

Black Red Yellow

The craft of carpet weaving in Kyrgyzstan boasts a long and legendary history, and is an integral part of local life. Turdugul, known as the most skilled carpet weaver in the valleys, spent years practising this craft in solitude. That was until Kadyr the horse herder entered her life, sparking a long-overdue romance that ultimately ended in a wordless farewell – leaving only an unfinished carpet behind. Years later, when the black, red and yellow patterned carpet was unfurled at his funeral, memories slowly unfolded in her heart like woven threads.

The Chimp

The Chimp is the nickname of a teenage boy (with large ears) who lives in the small town of Balyktchy, Kirghizstan, a former part of the USSR in central Asia. His family is being torn apart by his dad's alcoholism, his emotions are being torn as he sees his friends pair off into couples, and his job working on the railtracks is uninspiring.

Mother's Paradise

Serikpai and Amir grow up without a father, who once went to work in Russia, but never returned. They are waiting for him and hoping. Waiting for her husband and wife Polina. She remembers the short happiness of her former life. She tries to resist the current life, but it is given to her at too high a price…

The Shelter for Majors

How a Boy Saved His City

As his city faces the threat of being conquered by an evil lord, a brave boy decides to take matters in his own hands.

This Is What I Remember

An amnesiac old man Zarlyk who after twenty-three years of ordeal in a foreign land, returns to his homeland. Events take place in a village in Kyrgyzstan, where he is brought by his matured son Kubat. Much has changed during his absence: the morals of the villagers, mired in the realities of a changing world, radicalization of Islam, growing crime, and moral corrosive corruption began to consume... Zarlyk’s wife Umsunai, having lost hope of his return, went into religion, married the local authority Jaichy. The bright past invades the already accustomed Umsunai’s life. But nothing touches Zarlyk. An inexplicable passion for collecting garbage replaced him everything. Will the memory return to him and will Umsunai gain lost happiness when they are pressed by tight attitudes and immorality of the clergy, when love has eclipsed recklessness?

Death in Venice

Composer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.

Turtles Can Fly

Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.

The Return

Two young brothers in contemporary Russia are reunited with a father they know only from an old photograph after his sudden return from a long absence. With their mother’s reluctant consent, they set out on a remote trip that quickly becomes an uneasy test of authority, trust, and masculinity. As the journey moves deeper into the wilderness, the fragile bonds between father and sons are pushed to their limits.

The Cowboys

When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.

Jump In!

A young boxer, Izzy Daniels, trains to follow in his father's footsteps by winning the Golden Glove. But when his friend, Mary asks him to substitute for a team member in a Double Dutch tournament, the young man discovers a hidden passion for jump roping, all while finding love with Mary and navigating conflict with himself and his father about boxing.

Doubt

In 1964 Bronx, two Catholic school nuns question the new priest's ambiguous relationship with a troubled African-American student.

Mio in the Land of Faraway

Under the watch of his unkind realtives, lonely Bosse's luck is changed when he is sent to the land where his real father is the King. In that country, he sets out on a quest, together with his new friend, to destroy the evil Knight Kato.

Dancing at Lughnasa

Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.

Mercury Rising

Renegade FBI agent Art Jeffries protects a nine-year-old autistic boy who has cracked the government's new "unbreakable" code.