Paulin Salou Filmmaker Askhat Kuchinchirekov could not understand why the familiar Kazakh experience was not told on the big screen, so he took the initiative himself.
Kuchinchirekov’s directorial debut, which is now up for Kazakhstan’s nomination for Best International Feature at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards, tells the story of a 12-year-old boy named Yersultan Yerman, who is raised by his grandmother (Bigesha The story of how Salkyn was raised by Bigaysha Salkyn. Yersultan helps his grandmother maintain their dilapidated cottage in the countryside while doing manual labor in and around the community so that he can support his quietly ailing guardian while still saving enough money to eventually visit him when he Estranged family members who were abandoned at birth. This day comes earlier than expected due to the sudden death of his grandmother, and his subsequent reunion with his father, mother (Dinara Himmelbe) and brother (Eugene Berriculi) A far cry from the idealization I have thought of throughout my life.
Both Kuchinchirekov and his director of photography Zhanrbek Yelubek were raised by their grandmothers as part of this centuries-old nomadic practice, although Yelsudan’s story is emotionally It truly reflects their shared experiences, but the plot is mostly fictional. “This tradition is common to any Kazakh family, and all my life I have been curious as to why this tradition was not shown in any film or literature in Kazakh culture,” Kuchinchirekov said in a recent translation . THR presents Panel, powered by Vision Media. “I wanted the film to be a reflection of myself.”
The play blurs the lines between narrative feature film and documentary, as evidenced by the intimate handheld camerawork and deliberate omission of a musical score. “I wanted to create a world that people from all over the world could relate to and see what rural life in Kazakhstan is like,” Kuchinchirekov said via his producer Dias Fer De said. “I wanted to create a visual style that was close to documentary and realistic perspectives. [as possible] Let people really understand this tradition.
As a result, the viewer often feels like an observer in every scene, and this feeling reaches its peak when Yersultan struggles to adapt to life on his original family’s humble farm. There is no sign that he ever attended school while he was with his grandmother, so his struggles only intensified when he started fighting in his new classroom. During the scuffle, Yersultan accidentally bumped into the photographer, a moment that Kuchinchirekov deliberately preserved to further emphasize the authenticity of the scene. “I hope the physics make the audience feel like they’re really in the room and it’s all happening in front of their eyes,” Feld interjected on Kuchinchirekov’s behalf.
His pursuit of verisimilitude even extended to the names of the characters, as they were mostly named after the actors who first played them. But judging from Yersultan Yerman’s eye-opening performance as Yersultan, one would think he was already a seasoned child actor. His turn of influence ends with two highly emotional scenes, the first of which finds him walking out of his cabin in one long, continuous shot as he learns of his grandmother’s fate until he breaks down emotionally. Yeaman rehearsed for two weeks before settling on the fourth, heartbreaking scene. “Once we were able to get this shot, I was really happy at that moment because I knew we were about to create something really special,” Kuchinchirekov recalled.
Yerman’s second great scene comes when he has an explosive confrontation with his father (Edos Oesbe) for having given up on him in the first place and for being so cold upon his return. treat him. “I was inspired by a painting by Rembrandt in which a child kneels before his father,” Kuchinchirekov shared.
Ultimately, Kuchinchirekov demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of this Kazakh tradition, allowing viewers to draw their own conclusions about its validity. Feld, a latecomer to the project now distributed by Willa, was so moved by an early cut of the film that he felt compelled to come on board as a producer and do whatever it took to get the film seen arrive. “It’s really powerful and representative of our culture, so I want to help it survive in the world,” Feld said.
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