INFORMATION

Director: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Year: 2020
Duration: 71’
Language: VOSE | VOSC
Genre: fiction

SYNOPSIS

Ulbolsyn, who enjoys the freedom of a big city, has decided to save her younger sister Azhar, who still lives in her hometown and is to be forcibly married to the local fortune teller to become his younger wife. While trying to find a way out of this toxic circle, Ulbolsyn is not helped by the fact that Azhar herself does not wish to be rescued. Azhar doesn’t care about her future husband Urgen’s old age, nor his other wives or the fact that the man has kidnapped her and hidden her from Ulbolsyn. The rest of her family takes an equally skeptical view, considering the status of a married woman to be a far more valuable asset than higher education. She, however, will not back down in her fight against this patriarchal lifestyle.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY

Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Djezkazgan, Kazakhstan, 1982) graduated from the National Academy of Arts of Kazakhstan and subsequently pursued his studies in New York.He directed his first feature film, Rieltor (Realtor) in 2001, followed by Stroiteli (Builders, 2013), and Ukkili kamshat (The Owners, 2014), presented out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Subsequently, this director has managed to maintain a constant rhythm of production as derived from Chuma v aule Karatas (The Plague at the Karatas Village, 2016), screened at the Rotterdam Festival, Nochnoy Bog (Night God, 2018), premiered at the Moscow Festival, and Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira (The Gentle Indifference of the World, 2018), who participated in Un Certain Regarden at the Cannes Film Festival. Ulbolsyn, his most recent finished film was awarded the Best Asian Film at IFF Tallinn.