Kyrgyzfilm

For Kyrgyz director Melis Ubukeyev, making a full-length feature film of the Kyrgyz national epic Manas was a lifelong dream. He spent years working with the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan to gather material for the project, which ultimately never came to be. His efforts, though, were not in vain. He made several documentaries about manaschis, the revered oral performers who have preserved the epic for generations through melodic recitation, and in 1995, to mark the 1,000th anniversary of ‘Manas’, he made this captivating essay film, which recounts the epic’s sweeping narrative through breathtaking imagery and opulent costumes, weaving it into a semi-documentary exploration of Kyrgyz history and identity. Ubukeyev wrote, directed and narrated the film himself; it would be his last, as he died only a year later. Once almost impossible to find, the film was digitally restored by the Kyrgyzfilm studio and released in 4K on the studio’s YouTube channel in February 2023.

Pati, a student of journalism, decides to shoot her graduation film in Dzhabana in Kyrgyzstan. She is specially interested in the provincial town's vicinity to the nearby state frontier, which plays a major role in many of the townspeople's lives. Shima, Kycha and Baton use a stretch of fallow ground on the border to smuggle goods in their home-made four-wheel drive. Pati bumps into the threesome soon after her arrival in Dzhabana, when she recognizes her freshly stolen camera in the hands of its new owner: Baton. Pati strikes up an ambiguous relationship with the gang. She joins their tours as an observer at first, but soon takes a more active part. Then Shima comes up with a scheme to smuggle a stolen luxury vehicle: a cross-border wedding procession with the bridal couple in the limousine...

In a remote Kyrgyz village, Beshkempir, an infant foundling, is taken in by five older women and later adopted by a couple unable to bear children of their own. Fast forward to his early teenage years, a pubescent Beshkempir is faced with all the problems of crushing on girls and courtship, reconciling with friends and dealing with death in the family. Above all he questions his place in the world as an adoptee.

Follows the party worker who gave up his own child, and a young woman who left her baby in the garbage. After 19 years, it can be seen that the same boy and his mother are living together in a drug dispensary.

The second film by Kyrgyzstani director Aktan Arym Kubat (then credited by his Russian name Aktan Abdykalykov), it is the first of his autobiographical Kurak ("Quilt") Trilogy, followed by Beshkempir (The Adopted Son, 1998) and The Chimp (2001). Идиллия детства, радости, игры разрушается с возвращением в маленькое горное село моряка. В прекрасный мир девушки, мальчика и юродивого врывается великолепная морская форма с клешами и бескозыркой, и волшебная морская ракушка - источник всех их будущих бед.

Centaur lives a modest life with his family in rural Kyrgyzstan until he abruptly becomes the center of attention when he is caught stealing a racehorse at night. A story inspired by the myth when horses became the wings of men.

At a time when most females in Asia possess little or no power over their lives, headstrong Kurmanjan Datka defies her family's authority -- and ultimately becomes the ruler of her native Kyrgyzstan region.

An amnesiac old man Zarlyk who after twenty-three years of ordeal in a foreign land, returns to his homeland. Events take place in a village in Kyrgyzstan, where he is brought by his matured son Kubat. Much has changed during his absence: the morals of the villagers, mired in the realities of a changing world, radicalization of Islam, growing crime, and moral corrosive corruption began to consume... Zarlyk’s wife Umsunai, having lost hope of his return, went into religion, married the local authority Jaichy. The bright past invades the already accustomed Umsunai’s life. But nothing touches Zarlyk. An inexplicable passion for collecting garbage replaced him everything. Will the memory return to him and will Umsunai gain lost happiness when they are pressed by tight attitudes and immorality of the clergy, when love has eclipsed recklessness?

On a cloudy day a group of passengers set out on a journey to their village. This trip will test their morals, faith, and spirit, while they will try to navigate on a misty road.

Under Heaven, written and directed by Dalmira Tilepbergen, is a modern day re-working of the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, set in a remote mountain village in Central Asia. Two brothers, rebellious Kerim and conscientious Aman, live with their mother and work at the family stonemason business. Their father has been forced to work away in Russia in order to pay off Kerim's debts, incurred as a result of his eldest son's drug dealing activities. The brothers both fall for a local village girl, Saltanat, which ultimately leads to a bitter dispute and unforeseen and tragic consequences...

Based on the story of Chingiz Aitmatov "The White Steamer". In a forest cordon, lost high in the mountains, an old man and an old woman and his daughter live with their family - a husband and a seven-year-old son named Shambala, which means "boy-candle" or "boy who radiates light." Shambhala faithfully believes in the ancient myth of the Mother Deer, who saved the last baby of their kind, Bugu, from enemies and fed him with her milk. And although over time people exterminated the deer, the boy believes that someday the deer will still return to their land.

As his city faces the threat of being conquered by an evil lord, a brave boy decides to take matters in his own hands.

After living as an immigrant in the USA for 15 years, Azat flies to Kyrgyzstan to his family village. His father, Murat, died in the USA a year ago. It was his dying wish to pay back the money he owed to the villagers. Azat discovers the family home derelict. Choro, the younger brother of Murat, and their relations left a long time ago. Despite most villagers not liking him. One day, Choro, who was imprisoned because of Murat, arrives and the most important question about Murat's will is decided.

Shy and sometimes naive schoolboy Sashka lives with his grandmother and confides his secrets to a smart speaker because he has no friends. But Sashka has a special power - faith in miracles, thanks to which he gets into a whirlpool of extraordinary events. In the company of a witty genie from a jug and a smart speaker that has come to life, Alisa, Sashka sets off on a dangerous journey across half the world to find his parents, who after a sandstorm in Uzbekistan ended up in a magical city, captive to Shah Zaman. Sashka and company will face the machinations of the evil sorcerer Yusuf, battles on flying carpets, hot air balloon trips, chases across endless steppes, crossing the desert and meeting people who are ready to help the boy find his family again.

One day, Nazar walks into the studio of his partner’s ex-husband, Arsen. He looks around his computer and finds something that changes his life. Arsen is an artist who creates fictional worlds into which he loses himself. The romance between reality and the imaginary begins. Dreams and fantasies are forever intertwined with life here and now.

In this animated film inspired by Kyrgyz fairy-tales, a skylark helps people solve their problems.

The story takes place in Kyrgyzstan during the first years of independence. Three brothers, Kubat, Sato and Kanat, inherit a greenhouse from their father. The oldest brother, Kubat, takes care of it. The youngest brother, Kanat, destroys it. The middle brother, Sato, is indifferent to the situation.

Three teenagers living in a remote village spend their days playing fun. Each of the teenagers in these games forgets about the problems in their family. But adult reality is slowly creeping up on each of them. A reality where dads are fighting with each other for a place in the sun or just getting drunk. And mothers, in pursuit of their fate, sometimes forget about the little ten-year-old happiness left at home. And children who do not know how to pray like birds pray for the happiness of their mother and for the love of their parents.

The craft of carpet weaving in Kyrgyzstan boasts a long and legendary history, and is an integral part of local life. Turdugul, known as the most skilled carpet weaver in the valleys, spent years practising this craft in solitude. That was until Kadyr the horse herder entered her life, sparking a long-overdue romance that ultimately ended in a wordless farewell – leaving only an unfinished carpet behind. Years later, when the black, red and yellow patterned carpet was unfurled at his funeral, memories slowly unfolded in her heart like woven threads.

Loan sharks harass Damir and his family, even to the point of writing “home for sale” on the exterior of their house. Damir desperately tries to borrow money from his relatives, friends, and anyone else he knows; Cholpon also struggles to prevent the worst from happening.