NATIONAL COMPETITION

1. «Shoemaker», by Nurlan Razakulov, producer – Ulan Isakbekov, Cinema Development Fund (CDF), 2011, 26 min.
Synopsis. Shoemaker Bakyt Mambetakunov shoes the inhabitants of Kurtka village and people in the neighborhood. These places are 420 kilometers far from Bishkek - in Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan. Mambetakunov is a unique man who was able to overcome personal problems and become an extremely necessary specialist for his countrymen.

















2. «A Boy Running to the Fire» , by Bakyt Turdubaev, producers Farhad Bekmanbetov & Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, «Aitysh-film», 2011, 19 min.
Synopsis. The film tells about the life and creative work of the national poet Shayloobek Duysheev.














3. «Road to Mecca» , by Asel Zhuraeva, «Kyrgyzfilm», 2011, 20 min.
Synopsis. The film is about the inhabitant of Alga small village in Osh region of KR – a 70-year-old Sulaiman Turdubaev. He has been dreaming of going to Hajj to Mecca for many years and has been saving money. So, when he got enough money for this long journey, he suddenly decides to restore an old monument in his village, dedicated to soldiers who died during the II.World War. And all of his savings are spent for it.













4. «Light» , by Zhaken Chotoy, «Altai Cinema Group», 2011, 22 min.
Synopsis. Small mountain village inhabitants have their own life, their own problems, which one is more important is to be decided by viewers. This documentary is about the light, Light around and inside us.













5. «Ferry Man», by Mirlan Abdykalykov, producer Ulan Isakbekov, CDF, 2011, 23 min.
Synopsis. By ferrying people from one bank to another, across the artificial lake on the Naryn river, the boatman Djanybek connects people far from the civilization, with whole Kyrgyzstan.














6. «Perverted Dream», by Nishana Zheenalieva & Aktan Ryskeldiev, producers - Temir Birnazarov & Emil Satpashev, «Tazar», 2010, 20 minutes
Synopsis. The authors tried to reveal the reasons of gambling addictions. Casinos, slot machines, cards - all these are attributes of making easy money. Some curse this easy way of making money, and some get fabulous incomes. If you evaluate gambling from a social point of view, you will have to admit that gambling is a reason for a number of human tragedies.















7.«Youth Issues, by Nishana Zheenalieva & Aktan Ryskeldiev, producers - Temir Birnazarov & Emil Satpashev, «Tazar», 2010, 20 minutes
Synopsis. It's no secret that young people have a lot of problems nowadays: it is difficult to get a job, life and work experience is required. The filmmakers asked a question: «How can young people find and realize themselves today? »











8. Under the Positive» , by Almaz Kabaev, producer - Ulan Isakbekov , CDF, 2010, 13 min
Synopsis. Professional Lyceum № 43. Problem children from not very rich families from all over Kyrgyzstan. They do not like to be perceived as homeless ones. Teachers and educators are preparing them to acquire the skills of their future professions. And what do they dream about? Dreams and desires of children are realized in the project: «Profession of a photographer as a new opportunity for homeless children».













9. «Torture…» , …» by Yelizaveta Stishova & Bakyt Turdubaev, producers: Farhad Bekmanbetov & Sadyk Sher-Niyaz, «Aitysh-film», 2011, 16 min.
Synopsis. The story of two people who are trying to find the truth through litigation. There were more than a hundred hearings already, but their case is not ending. One of them died because of torture during this period.














10. «Osh Hostilities», by Nika Joldosheva, producer - Chinara Aitbaeva, «Nash Vek» Youth Movement, «Manas» National Youth Palace and Kyrgyz State Institute of Arts named after B. Beishenalieva, 2010, 12 min.
Synopsis. This film is the analysis, reflection on the events in Osh in 2010, through the eyes of a university student. This tragedy could be compared with tornado or a tsunami in its power of devastation and destruction of lives and fates of people and the city. Unfortunately, the difference was that the events of 2010 were made by people’s own hands.
















11. «Osh. Six Months Later», by Daria Sytenkova, producer - Vyacheslav Goncharov, PF «Door Media», 2011, 20 min.
Synopsis. The film director of «Osh. Six months later», Daria Sytenkova compares the situation right after the 2010 conflict in southern Kyrgyzstan and a few months later. For this, the author met with victims and told about their lives after that. There is a Kyrgyz businessman who lost his business, and an Uzbek teacher, whom all the people assisted by giving clothes so that she was able to return to work in September. And there are also two rural old women of different nationalities, who have united the neighbors and did not let outsiders in their village in those tragic days.












12.«Paradise at the Feet of», by Chynara Tokonova, producer Vyacheslav Goncharov, PF «Door Media», 2011, 20 min.
Synopsis. The film is about life which began after the conflicts in June. The creative team of “Door Media” Public Fund decided to show the life of women who became witnesses of South events. Each woman in the film tries to contribute to the peace through their life, wants to save her country from a tragedy, like a mother saves her child. For example the director of “Altyn Uya” children’s home Tamara Toktometova cares of 18 children of different nationalities. Ogulay Mirbobaeva doesn’t lose hope and tries to forgive people in the name of the bright future, despite that she has lost her business and her house was burnt during the events in June. The main characters’ wish as mothers is peace. The 20-minute film was shot in Osh and Jalal-Abad cities.












13. «Save and Protect», by Flora Gaziyeva, producer Aibek Dzhangaziev, «Kyrgyztelefilm», 2011, 29 min.
Synopsis. Women's hands are stirring wheat. Then these same hands pressed out malt. Strong hands of a man fill the pot with malt. Cooking of sumalyak begins. We are on a school lesson where children with the help of their teacher decide how to get out of psychological crisis after the events of June 2010, in Osh.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

1. «Market», by Ramu Rau, Canada, 2010, 70 min. – FILM OF THE OPENING CEREMONY
Synopsis. In India, selling one’s kidney in the black market in an effort to keep the wolf from the door is not very uncommon, even though it is against the law. Director Ramu Rau focuses on two women: Hema, from India, who is trying to sell a kidney through her sister; and Sandra from Canada, whose mother and daughter are helping her to find a suitable donor via the internet. Hema undergoes an examination prior to operation, and attempts to agree on a price of her organ. Meanwhile, Sandra and her family are confronted by the reality of an Indian slum, where selling a body part is often the only way people can keep their heads above water.













2. «The Green Wave», by Ali Samadi Ahadi, Germany/Iran, 2010, 80 min.
Synopsis. Last year’s presidential elections in Iran aroused the nation from its lethargy. For the first time in years, the younger generation felt that there was a chance for change. Hundreds of thousands of them took to the streets in support of the reform candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. But hope gave way to disappointment and general disillusionment over the clear electoral irregularities, which helped to re-elect the conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The massive wave of protests that followed was viciously suppressed by the regime, which did not hesitate to use the most brutal means of suppression possible.












3. «Thieves by Law», by Alexander Gentelev, Israel/Germany, 2010, 91 min.
Synopsis. They didn’t learn life at school, but in prison, where they also selected their future associates. For them, a tattoo is not an adornment, but an expression of their contempt for the authorities and a sign of belonging to a certain prison caste and its hierarchy. They have never worked, yet they are millionaires, which is something they are duly proud of. According to a former Russian Interpol agent, these people now have a fundamental influence on economic and political decisions in their country, because they are well aware that they must also have their “own” politician at their disposal (in addition to bodyguards armed to the teeth).












4. «Congo in Four Acts», by Dieudo Hamadi, producer Djo Tunga Wa Munga, Congo/South Africa, 2010, 69 min.
Synopsis. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the fourth biggest state in Africa. Though it possesses enormous mineral wealth its citizens are mired in poverty. This quartet of short, unpolished documentaries captures the tough realty in four parts of the desolate central African state.
















5. «Stories of Trafficked Children», by Yeneakale Tamrat, Ethiopia/Czech Republic, 2010, 28 min.
Synopsis. In Ethiopia, slavery was officially abolished in 1930s. Nonetheless, the local inhabitants still have to contend with it in some form or other to this day. Often, it is the result of extreme poverty, which people try to escape from by moving to large cities, as well as the demand for cheap labour. Both these factors are exploited by traffickers, who primarily trade in women and children.













6. «The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan», by Jamie Doran, Great Britain, 2010, 52 min.
Synopsis. Bacha Bazi, which means “boy’s game”in translation, is the name of an old Afghan tradition under which adolescent boys dress as women and perform dances for the pleasure of adult men. Exiled Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi returned to his homeland with British director Jamie Doran to make a brave investigation film about this illegal practice. He gains the trust of Dastager, a rich businessman who admits in indulging in Bacha Bazi, saying two to three thousand children have passed through his hands.















7. «Salt», by Marat Sarulu, producers: Sadyk Sher-Niyaz & Farhad Bekmanbetov, «Aitysh-film», 2010, 44 min
Synopsis. There are two main heroes in this story – one is old sailor, another one is sea. In any weather, either it’s sunny or gloomy sky old sailor comes to the moorage. His life is simple like any single men’s life.













8. «Katka», by Helena Trestikova, Czech Republic, 2010, 90 min.
Synopsis. Helena Trestikova has made this documentary shot over a number of years. Her central character this time is a drug addict called Katka. The powerful story of Katka’s 14-year struggle against drug addiction begins in 1996 in the Sananim treatment clinic, where she dreams of finding a boyfriend one day, living a life similar to that of her peers and perhaps even having a family. In the years that follow, however, her life revolves around an endless cycle that involves the constant consumption of various drugs, theft, prostitution, and increasingly harrowing physical, mental and moral devastation.














9. «Poster Girl», by Sara Nesson, USA, 2010, 38 min.
Synopsis. When she was 19, Robynn Murray and her friends Amanda and Lilly appeared on the cover of an American Army magazine, forming an image the US government hoped would attract other women to enlist for the Iraq war. Today Robynn is one of the 300,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Haunted by her terrible experiences, and suffering from nightmares and remorse, she takes part in anti-war demonstrations and meetings. Along with other vets, Robynn refashions uniforms and military promotional materials into activist art, while also applying for a disability pension. All the while, she is beset by thoughts of suicide, insomnia, anxiety and depression. However, Robynn learns too late that the slick facade of official propaganda masks the suffering of the civilian population, cruelty and injustice. This film was nominated for an Oscar in 2010 in the Best Documentary Short Film category.












10. «I Was Worth 50 Sheep», by Nima Sarvestani, Sweden, 2010, 52 min.
Synopsis. Many Afghan men are followers of radical Islam and honor the tradition of trading in wives, who are a generation younger and whom they sometimes don’t treat any better than a dog. This is also the case with 16-year-old Sabere, whose father died when she was seven years old, which resulted in her being acquired by a relative. When she was ten, he sold her to a member of a Taliban who was forty years older. She became pregnant by him four times. “I often thought of suicide,” is how Sabere recalls her married life with tears in her eyes.














11. «In the Name of the Family, by Shelley Saywell, Canada, 2010, 60 min.
Synopsis. According to UN reports 5,000 honor killings occur around the world every year. The film tells a story that took place in Toronto, where a Pakistani immigrant murders his own 16-year old daughter Aqsa. Several weeks later, the American city of Dallas is shocked by the murder of two teenage sisters Amina and Sarah by their Egyptian father. A few months afterwards in Rochester, NY, 19-year-old Fauzia, the daughter of Afghan parents, miraculously survives her brother’s attempt to stab her to death. Through direct interviews with friends and acquaintances of the victims, the film examines the circumstances and escalating tensions that culminated in these family crimes and it also looks at the reaction of the local Muslim community. In eerie parallel, we meet other girls from immigrant families who continue to live in fear of their close relatives.













12. «Pink Saris», by Kim Longinotto India/Great Britain, 2010, 98 min.

Synopsis. In this film, Sampat Pal, the famous founder of a group called the Gulabi Gang (“Pink Gang”) to combat the tradition of gender discrimination, describes herself as the messiah of Indian woman. Director Kim Longinotto, who has devoted many years to women’s rights issues, captures the everyday grind of Pal and other Indian activists who regularly meet women who are the victims of their husbands’ violence.













13. «Village Without Women», by Srdjan Sarenac, France/Serbia/Croatia, 2010, 83 min.
Synopsis. There are only eight inhabitants left in the Serbian village of Zabrdje, all of them are men, and all of them are single. Brothers Zoran, Rado and Dragan live together in a house covered in pictures of models cut from men’s magazines. They do their daily chores, raise sheep, and have never heard of the internet. The absence of women is extremely hard for the three to bear. Only Zoran actively tries to find a bride, though he has no luck in Serbia. In nearby Albania, there are more women than men, so he travels there with the aim of finding the most attractive woman in the world.














14. «Vodka Factory», by Jerzy Sladkowski, Sweden, 2010, 90 min.
Synopsis. “I’m a silly person, but sensitive too,” declares Valya, the 22-year-old single mother who works in a local vodka factory and lives with her mother in the backwoods Russian town of Zhigulyovsk. There’s no future here: there’s nothing to do but drink and all the men are deadbeats. Ambivalent about caring for her son, the comely, heavily mascaraed Valya escapes the brutal banality of her reality by dreaming of becoming an actress in Moscow. But in realizing her dream, she would not only be abandoning her son, she’d be destroying her mother’s: Fifty-year-old Tatiana finally has a chance at love when an old flame re-enters her life. Filmed like fiction and imbued with the gorgeous melancholy of crushed dreams, award-winning Vodka Factory is a stunningly intimate reflection on the price of dreams.












15. «The Other Chelsea – a Story from Donetsk», by Jakob Preuss, Germany, 2010, 88 min.
Synopsis. If you come from the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, then you are undoubtedly a passionate fan of the local football club Shakhtyor and that the “Orange Revolution” was not for you. In no other city did the “blue opposition” of the current Ukrainian president and of the fan of Shakhtyor at the same time – Viktor Yanukovich, enjoy as much support as it did in the mining town of Donetsk. This is a portrait of an impoverished town, with a high unemployment rate and corruption, with a football stadium, built by local billionaire Rinat Akhmetov. The Shakhtyor’s victorious campaign at UEFA Cup is pointed out in the film. And they say the football is only a game…













16.«Salam Rugby», by Faramarz Beheshti, Iran/New Zeeland, 2010, 62 min.
Synopsis. When Iranian men see a rugby ball they joke that it's either a melon or a dinosaur egg. And the idea that women chase after one on a sports field is for them simply absurd. The Islamic Federation of Women's Sports have their work cut out trying to promote female sport in a society headed by Iran's conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. However, the country's rugby federation is doing its best to open the sport up to women, who are really keen to play. Such efforts face many obstacles.














17. «Baghdad Film School», by Shuchen Tan, Netherlands, 2010, 60 min.
Synopsis. . In 2003, a few months after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, documentary filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi and her fellow colleague of Iraqi origin Kasim Abid decided to establish a film school in Baghdad. This institution had to close down after two years following a bomb attack in its immediate vicinity. A subsequent attempt to revive the school dates back to 2008. This documentary, from the very heart of the Iraqi capital, offers a collage of footage from classes teaching young and ambitious filmmakers, as well as from these students’ own video diaries. These pictures record the everyday reality of living in the middle of a dangerous district and the attempts people are making to stand on their own two feet.

SPECIAL PROGRAM

Date: September 29- October 1, 2011
Location: Dom Kino, 170 seats, (Bishkek, Logvinenko, 13, Bokonbaeva intersection)

Non-competition program











1. «Birth of Manas as a premonition», by Nurbek Egen, producer Evgeniya Tirdatova, the production of “Sanzhyra” and “Kinoglaz" film companies, 2010, 87 min.
Nurbek Egen about the conception of his film: "Investigating the Kyrgyz epic poem" Manas ", you can clearly see that in that difficult period, Kyrgyz people needed a hero, like Manas. Stories told in the epic, point to major problems of that epoch: conflicts between tribes, war against aliens. In order to save their families, people had to leave their lands and go to different parts of Central Asia and the Ural Mountains. People needed someone who would revive their national identity, who would be recognized as a true leader, who would unite the nation and return Kyrgyz to their homeland. Today, when a critical period came for Kyrgyz people, the nation is going through a very difficult moment in the history, like many years ago, in the epoch of Manas. And we want to believe that we are on the threshold of rebirth. I have premonition of the birth of a new Manas.
Bio/ filmography of the director: Nurbek Egen, film-director, Kyrgyzstan, Winner of multiple International film festival awards, a well-known Kyrgyz film-director, successfully implementing the major international film and television projects. Graduate of Khotinenko’s studio at the Russian State University of Cinematography named after S. Gerasimov (2000). Films: "Sanjyra" (2001), "Wedding Chest" (2005), “Birth of Manas as a premonition” (2010). Lives in Moscow, Russia










2. «Richness will be over, poverty remains» by Mirjam Leuze Germany/2006/24 min/
Synopsis. Despite its natural wealth 54% of population of Peru, 26 million people live in poverty. Currently there are 250 acting mines in Peru. For people living here it means: contamination of such important resources as water and soil with toxic stuff used for extraction of ore and remains (tails) of industrial process; social problems as a result of conflict usage of land and resources; non-observance of principal laws by state and companies working at the mines. Besides, projects of mining industry expose to danger such functioning economic structures as agriculture not offering alternatives for long-term perspective. On the example of two cases from Peru the film shows the problem of: in the first case the film informs about large-scale gold mine in Latin America, Yanacocha, the owner of which is American concern Newmont since 1993 in northern Cajamarca. The second example shows conflicts around the case in Majaz: at the frontier area with Ecuador the reconnaissance works are done on exposure of the large copper mine in the world. If the project will be implemented the typical consequences for humanity and nature should be expected. The population is protesting against the project, but in spite of this the state sees only enormous currency earnings and prefers economy to ecology.












3. The Price of Gold» , by Mirjam Leuze/ Germany/2007/42 min
Synopsis. The life of the religious figure, farmer, former worker of the mine and many other people exposed to danger as they are living in the outskirts of gold mine. Gold mine Yanacocha is placed very close to Cajamarca in the north of Peru and is one of the largest and profitable enterprise in Latin America.
1.Migel Hernandes is engaged in farming all his life. The water and grass saturated with toxic substance of Yanacocha and the farmer had to endure expenses for treatment of the sick livestock. But Yanacocha enterprise had killed some of protesting farmers. 2.Marko Arana and organization GRUFIDES created by him supports farmers and struggles with the harmful effects of highly toxic cyanide. Yanacocha enterprise is tracing them and constantly threatens to kill them.
3. The former worker of Yanacocha Persi Portilas Escalante is 37. In the process of work with chemicals on the mine he was exposed to dangerous illness, his blood contains mercury, and his hands tremble and all his inner organs are infected. He is fighting for his rights now.






4. «Golden Times - Thе Two-Faced Business with Gold» , film by Ralph Weihermann, Mirjam Leuze/Germany/2010/44 min/
Synopsis. Gold is a dream of everyone. It is the stability and a good investment. Gold mining is a profitable business. It increases employment and wealth of the region. But does it bring only happiness to people? This film investigates the other side of the medal…
Bio/ filmography of the director: Mirjam Leuze is an independent journalist and director of documental films in Germany. Together with her collegue Ralph Wierman she works over the problems of ecology and human rights in Europe, Latin America, central Asia and Africa. She filmed several documentary films for European channels ARTE, WDR, Deutsche Welle and works as a director in several NGOs. Also Mirjam Leuze had a preparation on Cultural anthropology and has worked in Kyrgyzstan for 1 year.