Directors of Kazakhstan Biography

Buying an advertisement on September 28 at the festival in San Sebastian took place the premiere of the debut picture of Askhat Kuchincherkov “Bauryna Salu”. She talks about the Kazakh tradition by which the eldest child is transferred to her grandparents. The tape is focused on one such story where a boy named Ersultan Ersultan Erman spends his childhood with a grandmother in the village, dreaming of accumulating money for a trip to his parents.

However, after the sudden death of his grandmother, Yersultan has to move to his father with his mother, and there he unsuccessfully tries to restore the lost connection with his family. At the same time, the meditative approach to showing work in the field allows you to plunge into the inner world of the hero, which goes through the symbolic path of becoming a man. Therefore, the subtle work of Kuchincherkov can be attributed to the direction of slow cinema, putting him on a par with theodoros Angelopulos and Bela Tarr.

The picture was well accepted on a look in Spain, giving the director a long applause. The Film Festival in San Sebastian is the fourth most important competition in Europe. The emergence of a Kazakhstani film in the program of such a prestigious festival is a great success for domestic cinema. Our film critic Oras Kereybaev interviewed Askhat Kuchincherkov, talking with him about working on the film, the difference between the Kazakh and European mentality and plans for the future.

The author of Oraz Kereibayev Askhat, how did you choose the actor for the main role? Tell us about working with a young performer. We started working on the film back in the year, when we won the competition against the State Center for Support of National Cinema. They began preparations for filming in the middle of the year. During the pandemic, it was impossible to hold a competition in schools, so the casting was held online.

The application was submitted by more than seven thousand people, two thousand of whom claimed the main role. At this time, I saw a passage of the Aituga Onai program. The mother of Yersultan came to the program. She is a Kazakh woman from Uzbekistan. Her documents burned down, and for 30 years she could not receive a Kazakhstani passport. In the plot, I noticed her son Yersultan. I liked his eyes.

Then I began to look for him through a friend director who worked on the program. Already in the year, finding Yersultan, we began filming. His mother threw a job to be next to her son. She spent all her life on part -time jobs in restaurants near Talgar. She has three sons, the elder diagnosed children's cerebral paralysis. Initially, the script was completely different, where the boy was supposed to play a certain disorder.

But when I saw Ersultan's gaze, I decided to build all the drama through the prism of my eyes. Our nation is not very expressive, so the focus on internal factors allowed me to reveal much more pain than if I focused on the external manifestation of emotions. The approach to shooting was unusual.

Why did you decide to work with long plans? Again, from the decision to illuminate the internal conflict. Therefore, our majority of scenes were shot by one continuous double. At the festival, the Spaniards also asked about this approach. Many had the feeling that they watched documentary cinema, not a playful one. The operator Zhanarbek Eleubek and I chose such a style, telling a difficult story using only 54 speakers.

How was the landscape selected? I wanted to play in contrasts between two villages. The first terrain is Kuigan, Balkhash. There I showed warm and spacious views. The second location is Tuyk. There we see both cold and mountains. My goal was to show the distance of my father through the images of nature, so I shot the first part of the film in the summer, and the second winter. It was a dramatic solution.

Whether it managed to solve the audience. Tell us more about the connection of the tradition of Bauryn Salu and your personal experience. I was born in the Russian part of Altai. When I was a year and three months, I was given my grandparents to the Pavlodar region so that I could keep in touch with Kazakhstan and learn my own language. Parents still live in Russia. As a result, I grew separately and did not accept my mother and dad for most of my life.

Was like a hedgehog. They came with the younger sister, and I wanted to offend them. I was jealous and thought that I was just left. Of course, I grew up in the love of grandparents, but a sense of jealousy remained. But then I learned a lot, living in such realities. Formed its own slow perception of life. I transferred him to my cinema. Did you already have the opportunity to show the picture to your family?

Unfortunately, grandparents are already not alive. It would be fine if they could see the film. The father also did not. I want to show Bauyrina Salu to my mother and my younger sister. But for this you need to go and look together, discuss. I would like to ask about the ending of the film. In the penultimate scene, the father hugs his son. Was this a recognition of love, or a plead of one's own guilt before the child?

I think there was both. The scene lasts four minutes, within which transformation occurs. In my interpretation, my father is pushed by feelings, not the brain.I took off everything with one frame so that the viewer would better feel the transition of the character. In this continuous episode, magic is born. Do you think your film will be close to people who have gone through a similar experience?

I'll tell you an example. At the festival in San Sebastian, it was fundamentally important for me to give all interviews in the Kazakh language. The organizers for a long time searched for a translator who could speak in Kazakh and Spanish. A few weeks later, they found the girl Dan. She left the country back in x. So, until five years old she also grew up with her grandmother.

And despite the fact that she spent most of her life in Spain, those years with her grandmother remained in her memory forever. And according to her, my film allowed her and her children to feel Kazakhstan much deeper than through photos from Google or a trip to Almaty. Therefore, I think, “Bauyrina Sal” will respond to the audience. The topic will be close to many, because a huge number of children passed through this.

And many then have barriers. No one calls the parents “dad” and “mother”. I could not even say “father” before my father before death. It was felt as a form of betrayal. Many people grew out of this tradition, including many artists. This tradition is very specific for our country. Therefore, I wonder if the film was clear to the audience in Spain. The jury noted the dignity of the film.

Many mentioned that the audience applauded most of all. So, their viewer perfectly accepted the film. But there many asked why in my picture the main line unfolds around men. Women were as absent in the frame. I do not know how to explain it to them. In my opinion, it is more important for a summer boy to establish relations with his father, and not with his mother.

During this period, he becomes a man and needs the approval of his father. He would be eight years old, history would be different.