Hearts of Three
Following last week’s postcard about developments in Kyrgyz Cinema … I was intrigued to come across a news item about a young Kyrgyz born filmmaker, Dair Karakeev.
The story appeared in a youth orientated newspaper, “Limon“, (“Lemon”), because although the hour and a half long film is not due to receive its premiere until September, a clip and a couple of trailers for his romantic comedy, “Hearts of Three“, have already appeared on the internet.
I tracked them down on the site www.blive.kg – a sort of Kyrgyz youtube.
| http://www.blive.kg/video:36419/ |
| http://www.blive.kg/video:36986/ |
| http://www.blive.kg/video:9259/The Russian captions read: “Two years later” … and … “Everything depends only on you” |
Although born in Kyrgyzstan, where he attended School Gymnasium No.6, the eighteen year old is currently a student at KIMEP (Kazakhstan Institute of Management Economics and Strategic Research), in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
He happened to be in Bishkek and was happy to give the newspaper an interview.
What does it cost to produce a feature film? Robert Latham Browne has thirty years of experience in the industry and his book, “Planning the low budget film“, he describes the processes involved in scheduling and budgeting motion pictures in which he includes an example budget for an independent feature film, which comes in at something like two million US dollars. In 1999, London Pictures Ltd. published a sample budget for a film called “Clans” which came in at just under 40,000 pounds, although they point out that the figures they quote “in no way … represent anything real“!
Faced with such figures, it’s easy to understand why Kyrgyz filmmakers have difficulty finding finance for their work. Indeed, why any filmmakers anywhere in the world have difficulty in finding finance to complete their projects.
So, how did Karakeev manage to make his film?
One advantage that he had was that he not wrote the story, screenplay and directed the film himself … he also filmed it on an ordinary camera – a digital SLR Nikon D90.
As he put it, “the camera has a video function with good quality and the advantage is that you can change lenses to customize the features.”
I think Nikon should sign this guy up … and run a series of advertising campaigns based on him and his film. Watch the clips … and compare the quality with that of other clips that you have seen from Hollywood blockbusters … you can judge the quality for yourself … I’m no expert but I, for one, was impressed!
The one problem, or difficulty, that arose from the use of the camera was that it required a lot of editing – especially when it came to the soundtrack. “Since we did not have professional equipment, we had dub all the words, to overwrite the sounds in the studio,” he said. “With a conventional camera, it is hard to catch voices, especially when you film in the street and in noisy environments.”
Karakeev also said that the most difficult part of making the film was the casting. It seems that there was no shortage of would be actors who wanted to try out for the project, 111 for just 16 roles. Amongst the lucky ones selected were some young actors, but there were also ordinary students.
The filming took place in Kazakhstan and the film credits list it as a Kyrgyz-Kazakh production.
The original newspaper article, (in Russian), with some photographs can be found at: – http://limon.kg/news:13961/
Here’s a translation of the summary of the film given in the article:
The heroes of this film are easily recognizable, they are us – ordinary students who care about love, friends, family, education. The kids are boys and girls who commit insane acts, fall in love, find something new, and at the same time lose something, learn something, teach something. They differ in their history – each one has something special, something that makes them think – “Oh my God, this is because of what I did” and and the ups and downs of their fate is watched with keen interest – how to do it? – and what did he do? What will she do? … as they pass through these trials?
“Hearts of Three” is the story of serious Medet; the childishly pathetic and helpless Aijan; bold and responsive Diana; the lacking self-confidence but talented Aidar; the reckless and dangerous Alina and interesting and strong Max. These six young people go through life hand in hand, cursing, struggling with life’s situations, supporting each other, surprising us with their actions. ”Hearts of Three” is the world. The world was created for those who believe in their dreams.
Update from Lacarno (11th August):
After four days of screenings, lectures, and other events, the jury awarded production grants as part of the Open Doors section of the International Film Festival to three films. Unfortunately, Kyrgyzstan was not represented amongst the prizewinners. The top prize of 50,000 Swiss Francs, (USD40,000) went to “Sunny Days” from Kazakhstan, and two smaller prizes went to Uzbekistan’s “Aral” and “Barzagh“.
Bishkek