Cinema
Небо нашего детства
Tolomush Okeev · 1966
Synopsis
In the high pastures of the Tian Shan, the old herder Bakay sees his youngest son, a student in the city, return for the summer, arriving by helicopter; the family lives as its ancestors did, in the yurt, to the rhythm of the herds, and the father would like the boy to stay and help him. But the valley is being industrialised, and the young people, one after another, leave for the city and the factory.
Context
The first fiction feature of its author, until then a sound engineer and documentary maker, the film was shot for Kirghizfilm, in the Kyrgyz language, with Muratbek Ryskulov in the role of the old herder. It belongs to the first wave of films made by Kyrgyz in their own republic, along with those of Melis Ubukeev and Bolotbek Chamchiev, who formed the first generation of the national cinema.
Who it is for
Black-and-white film, in Kyrgyz with subtitles. The pace follows exactly that of pastoral life.
Prizes and reception
Special prize for a first film at the all-Soviet festival, and one of the founding films of Kyrgyz cinema, at the heart of what Soviet critics called the Kyrgyz miracle.