Postcard from Bishkek

The news broke during the week that there’s a Kyrgyz film up for an Oscar.

Pustoi Dom, (The Empty House or The Empty Home in English … “Dom” is one of those words that is hard to translate … it used basically as “that place where you lay you head and go to sleep” and can mean either), has got its work cut out for it, however, as there are a record breaking total of 71 films that have been submitted for consideration for the 2013 awards.

The previous record was 67 entries, and there could have been even more competition but some countries like Iran and Cuba decided no to submit any films for the 85th annual ceremony organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The one hundred minute feature film was shot in 2011, and saw its première in Bishkek in May. It was directed by Nurbek Egen and stars Maral Koychukaraeva, (who studied at Manus University in Bishkek), in her debut role as the heroine Asel, and Atay Omurbekov as her lover Marat. It was shot on location in Issyk Kul and in Moscow.

It’s a social drama tackling some of the vital themes of modern society, emigrant workers, social and cultural mores, national identity and one of the main themes is that of the situation facing Kyrgyz migrants; far from home and family, vulnerable and easily taken advantage of …

When the film opens, Asel is a country girl selling Apricots at the roadside from a bucket. She is young and “blossoming”; adaptable, practical and resourceful; full of energy and has a strong personality.  Although she is engaged to the local “Mr Big”, she wants something better from life … and so she runs away from her lover, her husband and her drunkard father to the big city, Moscow, where, even if the streets are paved with gold, there seems more opportunity.  There she falls in with other “gastarbeiters“, (as the Russians call migrant workers from central Asia), beginning an affair with a wealthy Russian and discovering that she is pregnant.  She considers an abortion, but prompted by her doctor agrees to “sell” her unborn child to a French woman, Virginie.  Then, the father of the unborn child appears in Moscow … the film following the ups and downs of her experiences and relationships in Moscow and France.

 

Apparently, it took seven years to find funding to cover the film’s budget of six hundred thousand Euros, which was eventually forthcoming supporters from Kyrgyzstan, Russia and France. It has already been featured in a number of international festivals and won prizes, including festivals in Seattle, Almaty, Moscow and Sochi, and won awards.

Although it was was several years in the gestation, in some respects it has proved to be a very timely and fairly controversial film, with a number of “frank” scenes – and some scenes are definitely NOT for the squeamish!  Indeed Egen has been criticised for “blackening the country’s name” by presenting such a negative scenario, but he maintains that it it represents a universal problem and could be set in, and be about the citizens of any country – especially any developing country.

 

Egen was born in 1975 in the Osh oblast of Southern Kyrgyzstan. He studied Drama at the Institute of Arts in Bishkek and in 2000 graduated from a Director’s course.

He currently lives in Moscow.

Although he has nine films under his belt, this is only his second full length feature film. The other was “The Wedding Chest“, released in 2005 and which won several awards.

The Wedding Chest, opens with scenes of Kyrgyz countryside but then shifts to Paris where the main character, Aidar, and his fiancée plan a visit to meet his family back in Kyrgyzstan. It is an exploration into the clash of cultures – village life versus cosmopolitan Paris, the limited opportunities available to those living in rural Kyrgyzstan and the different ways in which the characters respond to them. The chest in the title is a family heirloom and symbol of Kyrgyz tradition … eventually transported to a different world.

 

 

The film, or at least the version I have seen, was in Kyrgyz and Russian,  (although I believe a version with English subtitles is available) … anyway here is a short trailer with Russian subtitles for the Kyrgyz dialogue from youtube:

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I have written briefly before about Kyrgyz Cinema, and about some specific Kyrgyz films but, although I am impressed with what I have seen, I am not sure how likely Pustoi Dom is to walk away with the statuette; the list of candidates includes some fairly tough competition including a winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The final five nominations to be voted on will be announced in 10th January and the eventual winner announced at the awards ceremony to be hosted by the comedian/writer Seth MacFarlane in the newly renamed Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on 24th February.

 

Tags: Cinema, Expat, Kyrgyzstan