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Title of the festival: The Second Almaty Film Festival Dates: 14-20.09.2019 Place: Almaty, Kazakhstan President of the festival: Akan Satayev
Jury of the II Almaty Film Festival - 15.09.2019
International jury:
Hugh Hudson, director & producer, Great Britain, Chairperson
Natalya Ivanova, producer, Russia
Samal Yeslyamova, actress, Kazakhstan
Takeo Hisamatsu, director of Tokyo IFF, Japan
Antonio Costa Valente, producer, Portugal
Kazakh actress Samal Yeslyamova - the jury member
Elmar Imanov (End of Season) & Marko Skop (Let There Be the Light)
Moderator: Ekaterina Bordacheva - 16.09.2019
"End of Season" by Elmar Imanov (Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia, 2019, 92')
"End of Season". A small family in Azerbaijan is on the brink of running its course. Son Machmud feverishly seeks a home of his own$ mother Fidan wants her life back after years of service to the family4 father Samir just wants to be left alone. Three free spirits orbiting each other, ignoring the annoyance as much as possible. However the hairline fractures in their existence. (Info here)
"Let There Be The Light" by Marko Skop (Slovakya & Czech Republic, 2019, 93')
"Let There Be The Light". Milan (40) has three children and does construction works in Germany in order to support his family in Slovakia. While visiting his home over Christmas he discovers that his eldest son Adam is a member of a para-military youth group and is involved in the death of a classmate. The father has to decide what to do. In this process, along with his wife, he comes to discover the real truth about their son, their family, themselves and the community around them.
Tanya Shakhova (The Father) & Guillaume De Seille (Oleg)
Moderator: Ekaterina Bordacheva, translator: Olga Garifulina - 17.09.2019
"Oleg" by Juris Kursietis (Latvia, Lihuania, Belgium, France, 2019, 108')
"Oleg". ..After a dream-like, snow-napped and drone-captured opening sequence in which Oleg (Novopolski) falls through the ice into a lake — an interlude that remains enigmatic until the film's end — Oleg is seen landing in Brussels. (His fellow passengers all applaud when the plane lands safely, a tiny but spot-on detail that immediately pegs them as Eastern European.) Being part of the Russian-speaking minority back home makes Oleg culturally displaced already, a kind of demographic remnant of the Soviet era, and not an EU citizen like other Latvians... More here
"The Father" by Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria &Greece, 2019, 87')
"The Father". A quirky father tests the nerves of his estranged son at their wife and mother's funeral. A sleepless night follows as the father obsesses over the last phone conversation with his wife. She had something important to tell him and he couldn't hear her out. The father soon learns the son finally thouth to check the neighbor's phone. It was a voice message the dearly departed had left in her final moments...
Gulbara Tolomushova, Almaty
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