New reviews about movies made by Kyrgyz film-directors published in Kinokultura

Margarita Levantovskaya wrote about The Shakhta (2012) made by Nurbek Egen and Gulbara Tolomushova wrote about Herding (2014) made by Ruslan Akun. 

Fragment from review written by Margarita Levantovskaya, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 

"Emigration from the Russian Federation to the US has divided dramatically in the past few years. Yet, according too Nurbek Egen's gritty melodrama The Shaft dreams of coming to America persist among Russians particularly those residing in remote, post-industrial regions. The film takes place in a former mining town where life revolves around the elusive goal of leaving for the West. Children learn English in schools and adults make deals with the mafia at the promise of a green card. Egen suggests the futility of these efforts no better than in a scene where two boys attempt to forge a path to America by way of their local mine shaft. Lutching a hand-drawn map of the globe that locates the shaft in the north and the US in south, the kids hope to take a short-cut through the earth's center, thus avoiding the geopolitical impediments to migration. The scene ironizes the notion that globalization has made our world "small." One of the boys, Sania karol', has a father "on the other side." "Kostia Karol', who went to America to become a boxer, is the town's only known emigrant. While he lies in a coma following defeat in the ring. Sania gets trapped in the shaft..."

Please open here

Fragment from review written by Gulbara Tolomushova "Children, the Nation's Support, Or Initiation a la Kyrgyz":

An elder would say: "From birth to the age of five, your son is a khan, from five up to the age of fifteen he is a slave, and once over fifteen, he is your equal." In his new short fiction film Herding Ruslan Akun shows an initiation - a ceremony that marks the transition of an individual to a new stage of development - in modern Kyrgyzstan. Among the rituals associated with transition, initiation occupies a special place, where the major transition is from childhood (from 6 to 12 years) to adulthood. On the other hand, in Herding literally everything dissolves, disintegrates and disappears in a "ton of dust" - a cumilative image of the lost generation - of useless hasbands and fathers. Instead comes a new, young generation, capable of supporting the nation. It is also interesting that in this film the image of the smilling, tender and portly woman and mother symbolizes fertility, satiety and prosperity..."

 Translated by Birgit Beumers

Please open here