Guskova has emphasized that she made a universal picture about a man who spent a term in prison for murder and regained his freedom. However, it was less the prison that represented a punishment for him, but the feeling of guilt before the victim’s father after his release. For the protagonist it is important to receive a pardon from the elder (aksakal) to expiate his own guilt.

In reviews critics failed to pay attention to the meaning of the hero’s name: Erkin, in translation from Kyrgyz and Uzbek, means “free”, and in the context of the film’s theme – a “free man”. Guskova shot the film in two location: the first was a suburb of Bishkek – the prison$ but the bulk of the film was shot in the small village of Masy, in the south of Kyrgyzstan near Dzhalal-Abad, close to the border with Uzbekistan. The inhabitants of Masy are ethnic Uzbeks, but citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic. In the film practically only Uzbek language is spoken, and only in the scenes when Erkin is released from the prison, the security guards speak in the Kyrgyz language with him.

Continuing here