Cinema
Бешкемпир
Aktan Arym Kubat · 1998
Synopsis
In a Kyrgyz village, a foundling is handed over, in a ritual presided over by five old women, to a childless couple. Twelve years later, little Beshkempir, whose name means five grandmothers, spends the summer with his gang: swimming, horse rides, open-air film screenings, work at the brickyard and first glances toward the girls, until the day a friend, in the course of a quarrel, throws at him that he was adopted.
Context
Co-produced by Kirghizfilm and a Parisian company, the film is shot in black and white, interspersed with brief colour shots, and gives the lead role to the director's son. Filming took place in Bar-Boulak, a small village, with non-professional actors whose first names were sometimes kept for the characters; seasonal work and the metamorphoses of nature run in counterpoint to the boys' lives. It belongs to the first wave of films produced outside the State after independence.
Who it is for
Short film, in Kyrgyz with subtitles, with little dialogue. The village scenes are documentary in character.
Prizes and reception
Silver Leopard for young cinema at Locarno in 1998, grand prize at the first Eurasia festival in Almaty; submitted by Kyrgyzstan for the Oscar for foreign film.