Popular From Kazakhstan

On the eve of the opening of the exhibition, a unique exhibit disappears from the largest museum in Kazakhstan. The police have only 24 hours to find and return the artifact.

One day, two masked bandits break into Serik's house and take Serik's family members hostage. Serik offers money to get rid of the bandits, but they refuse the money. After all, the bandits did not come for robbery, but with another problem…

Set in the ancient town of Bukhara in Uzbekistan, the film follows a young man Behzod, as he surrenders his carefree youth and takes on the mantle of adulthood. Being locked in a highly patriarchal Muslim society of Bukhara, together with his bride he goes through a traditional wedding ceremony and centuries old initiation rites to finally become a head of the new family. But does this path make those young really happy?

A story about a childless family in which they dream of a child.

Eva Zhigalina became a trailblazer in the world of Kokpar in Kazakhstan – a traditional male game of nomadic peoples. In a traditional society where the participation of women in Kokpar has been prohibited, Eva overcomes social and cultural barriers to pursue her passion for this brutal game.

A Kazakh bride wanders around the streets of Almaty.

This is a story about a boy who is going through a divorce of his parents.

Azamat, before leaving for the army, wants to buy a car for his father so that he can earn a living on it. There are 10 days left before the army, and he agrees to steal.

Every 4 seasons, a young man visits a wild apple tree on the mountainside

Taking various shots of landscapes from different cities, including Astana, Karaganda, Almaty, Tashkent, St Petersburg, Seoul, Istanbul, and Sophia, Ugay moves his camera through different countries to capture spaces, architectural shapes, and other situations that contain layers of memory and desire.

The film features video footage of the massacre of demonstrators in Zhanaozen on December 16, 2011, supplemented by the author's footage.

With the support of Contemporary Art Norway

Lida Blinova is well-known in the scene of the first contemporary art wave, particularly amongst architects who were very much engaged in arts in 1970s Almaty. However, almost no legacy of her art practices is left for researchers, historians and following generations of today. Being in many senses a shadow-artist of a bigger star, her husband Rustam Khalfin, directors of the documentary are questioning the possibility of the freedom of choice among Kazakhstani women artists like Lida Blinova, embarking on a biographical journey through the genealogy of contemporary art and its formation in Kazakhstan. So, the fundamental question is whether Lida Blinova was a shadow artist or an alter ego?

The old man’s last wish – to fulfill the Kazakh tradition and put his grandson on a stallion – is shattered by everyday life, bureaucracy and loneliness, remaining unfulfilled. The music of Johann Bach on the dombra emphasizes pain and hope.

How should we remember catastrophic events? And what remains in people’s memory when their stories are silenced? All the Dreams We Dream is a hand-drawn animation based on the memories of those who endured famine in Qazaqstan in the 1930s. Based on two memoirs retold by poet Gafu Kairbekov, it seeks to explore questions of empathy and fear, asking how stories of violence and pain should be recounted in the modern age.

Kazakh has an old tradition that every Kazakh boy over the age of five has to be circumcised in autumn. This traditional ceremony has a symbolic meaning that a boy is about to become a man. This story is about a young Kazakh boy who comes to his grandfather’s house in the grassland of pastoral areas with his family, and goes through the traditional circumcision ceremony. During the process, he becomes fearful after discovering it is a medical surgery. Although he tries to run away from it, he eventually goes through the ceremony. With the physiological changes, his character and thoughts change and he is on his path to adulthood…

The film is about a brother and sister who struggle with life’s difficulties. Boys for the health of the mother do what they can. They do not choose the easy way and achieve everything honestly.

The film is based on a little-known story that happened in 1972. Then a ferry carrying fifteen boarding students sank in the Ili River. Three drowned. But twelve were saved-thanks to the young driver of the state farm Bisetai Daurenbekov… This film is about saved children. More precisely, already adults. About how their fates turned out. Some still live on the banks of the Ili - they will tell about themselves, about others, and about Bisetai.