Film ‘Shoqan’ by Kazakh film director Kuanysh Beisekov was presented at the Germany’s oldest film festival for young audiences. The 23-minute film tells about the distant future. In a virtual reality setting, a history teacher tells about the famine in the Kazakh steppe in the 30s of the 20th century. The film authors managed to convey the horror and despair of dying people. The main character Shoqan gets into the real past due to a technical failure in the system and tries to help a girl Aischa. The filmmakers tell about how a Kazakh family was dealt a tough hand and got the magical salvation. The film was screened in Kazakh language with English subtitles. Movies from 40 countries took part in the film festival in Germany.
“Usually, we select films for the festival after watching those that were sent to us. However, we found the Kazakh film ourselves, having watched it for the first time at the festival in Frankfurt. We decided then that we must show it in our cinema. We contacted the filmmakers and requested to screen it in Germany,” said section curator Lara.
“This is a very difficult issue. We deliberately decided that we should talk about the difficult topics. We need to talk about the famine, and I find the style of presentation interesting. The history of the past and the future was intertwined there. It is great that the Kazakh-made film takes part in the film festival,” added section curator Amal.
Translation by Saniya Sakenova
Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova
