Vlll Eurasia International Film Festival

Aditya Saturday September 22, 2012

 

Vlll Eurasia International Film Festival   Nurlan Baitasov in STUDENT

Clear skies, perfect weather and a clutch of interesting films, particularly and expectedly from Central Asia, were the hallmarks of the Vlll Eurasia International Film Festival in the serenely beautiful, flower-bedecked city of Almaty. This festival has matured in its programming even if the number of films is small and the event lasts a mere four days. No effort is spared to roll out the red carpet and present grandiose opening and closing ceremonies to an elegantly dressed capacity crowd of some 3,000 at the vast Palace of the Republic in the heart of this erstwhile capital. Held under the patronage of the Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Information, Kazakhfilm and the Association of Cinematographers of Kazakhstan, Eurasia is the place to view the best of Central Asian cinema, thanks to a well-knit programme put together mainly by its Artistic Director Gulnara Abikeyeva. A high-voltage audio-visual presentation of guests, organisers and film clips, a wonderful opera performance, Hollywood celebrities (Wolfgang Petersen, Dennis Haysbert), a Special Festival Prize to the legendary National Actor of USSR and winner of the USSR State Prize, Asanali Ashimov – and all this was followed by a gala dinner where guests were treated to traditional song and music, performance by acrobats and a fashion show!   The Opening Film, Virtual Love, by Amir Karakulov, veteran Kazakh director and one of the founders of the country’s New Wave in the 1990s was all about falling in love in the virtual world, so virtual that you have no idea that the object of your affection is actually sitting in the next room. The Internet, the film appears to say, helps erase borders that we ourselves erect in real life. The festival closed with a high-powered, Hollywood-style historical Kazakn drama, Myn Bala: Warriors of the Steppe by Akan Sataev, a story about the bloody wars for the unity of the Kazakhs. A true spectacle, an extraordinary display of heroism, daring, gore, intrigue, spiritedness, love and the endless steppe. Myn Bala is Kazakhstan’s entry for Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars. In between, The Book of Legends: The Mysterious Forest by Akhat Ibraev, an ambitious production and the first Kazakh film in the fairy-tale fantasy genre with CGI and animation.   Eurasia is where you can catch up on Kazakh cinema, the most productive in Central Asia -  seventeen films, including those mentioned above. Eleven of these formed the Dynamic Kazakh Cinema package which consisted of a variety of genres – comedies, romantic melodramas, youth dramas, films about Kazakhstan’s recent history. Others were part of the International Competition, while four films of Ashimov were also screened as a tribute to the well-known actor.   Eleven films from Europe and Asia competed for the international awards but surprisingly no Best Film award was conferred. Instead, two films – Future Lasts Forever by Özcan Alper (Turkey) and Elles by Malgorzata Szumowska (a Germany-France-Poland production) -  shared the prize for Best Director. Anais Demoustier, one of the main actresses in Elles took the Best Actress award while the Best Actor went to Kazakh-born actor Azamat Nigmanov for his role in the Russian film The Convoy by Russian director Alexei Mizgriev. The Convoy also won the FIPRESCI Prize. The NETPAC jury awarded acclaimed director Darejan Omirbaev’s Student, a film that subtly and suitably transposes the moral dilemma in the mind of the central character, Raskolnikov, in Feodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment into present-day Kazakhstan.   A Central Asian Panorama, a programme of films from Azerbaijan and Central Asia (minus Kazakhstan) had seven features and four shorts. A fair selection, demonstrating a certain vitality, some set in urban locations, others in the mountains and the steppe, throwing open the tug of the city and the lure of the countryside.   The NETPAC jury saw eleven films from Central Asia and Azerbaijan: a mix of many moods - from an all’s well that ends well ending (Day of Truth, Uzbekistan) to the inner world of a child (Princess Nazik, Kyrgyzstan), of a student (Student, Kazakhstan), a parable of an old man and his son (Kyrgyzstan I Love You – Socks), death and loneliness (The Telegram, Tajikistan),  familiar and unfamiliar worlds (The Steppe Man, Azerbaijan), shattered hopes of young girls (The Empty Home, Kyrgyzstan, Parizod, Uzbekistan), a short man and his dream (Shorty, Kazakhstan), to doctors and organ donation (Presumed Consent, Tajikistan), and the delivery of coffins of those killed in war to their homes (Mute House, Uzbekistan).   There was more for those who may have missed watching previous award-winners from Berlin (three Golden Bears and one silver) and Pusan (four). The festival programme also included round tables on Eurasian Cinema as reflected in film festivals and Young Eurasian Cinema (with particular reference to pitching proposals) as well as Master Classes. I doff my hat, too, to the handsome festival catalogue.

 


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