Two starry-eyed teenage best friends fall foul of the scheming, sexist and sometimes outright violent men around them in Kurak, the third feature of Kyrgyz filmmaking duo Erke Dzhumakmatova and Emial Atageldiev, who died last August before the start of post-production on the film. Setting their story in a city awash with brightly lit boulevards, towering skyscrapers and lots of bling, the directors deliver a blistering attack on how old-school misogynists and the amoral nouveau riche have somehow joined forces in perpetuating the poisonous patriarchal values of yore.
Pulling no punches whatsoever in depicting his protagonists’ dashed hopes and devastating suffering in the face of their unrepentant tormentors, Kurak is a tough watch throughout – astoundingly, the cruelty in the film outranks that of Bride Kidnapping, Kyrgyz filmmaker Mirlan Abdykalykov’s 2023 film about the abduction and forced marriage of a young woman into a family of small-time crooks. Just like the latter film, Kurak’s topicality, message and gritty realism will resonate with both festival programmers and social activists after its premiere in the Vision Asia competition at the Busan International Film Festival.
The film begins with archive news footage of a women’s rights demonstration in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. The event has barely begun when thugs appear on the scene and begin to beat up the protesters; rather than stopping the men, the police start arresting the women instead. A real-life visual record of the blatant collusion between state power and chauvinist goons, these devastating images serve as an ominous overture to the horror that is to follow.
Jyldyz (Begaiym Asanakunova) is the more childlike of the film’s two protagonists. Raised by her loving factory-worker single-mother Nargiza (Ainura Kachkynbek Kyzy), the diligent student is looking forward to life in university and beyond – and a meeting with someone she has been happily chatting with online. Unfortunately, that man is Aibek (Aman Abdrahmanov), a sleazy scion who jokes about his wish to “kidnap” Jyldyz in order to get her away from her books for a night out on the town. This turns out to be more than just a morbid joke. After an unwilling visit to a dodgy drinking den and a spiked drink later, the young woman becomes Aibek’s latest dispensable trophy.
Her worldlier cousin Meerim (Aliman Ryspekova), meanwhile, fares no better. Unlike Jyldyz’s headstrong mother, Meerim’s shaman mom is more closely bound to so-called traditional values: a woman’s burden, she says, is to “endure and pray”. Trying to rebel against this idea and also to bring home a little more money, Meerim signs up to work as an erotic webcam model – a gig which draws her to the attention of Kanat (Atay Omurbekov), a corrupt cop who dresses up his bad deeds in extremist moral rhetoric, as he rails against the immorality of “the modern woman” while taking kickbacks from prostitution rackets.
“Kurak” is Kyrgyz for “patchwork”, and the two teens’ intertwining misfortunes are also tied with that of Jamila (Kalipa Tashtanova), a high-ranking TV journalist celebrated for her progressive news reports and her support for gender equality in the country. Beyond the limelight, however, she is also the mistress of a powerful politician – an ilicit liaison which has fatal consequences in her floundering attempt to help Nargiza seek justice for her daughter.
Through Erzhan Arakeev’s camerawork, Bishkek gradually turns into purgatory as the two teenagers plummet into the abyss. A dazed and bewildered Jyldyz is shown walking through streets lined with the hollow husks of would-be condominium towers, while lights and shadows instill desolation and anxiety in places as diverse as Nargiza’s workplace, Meerim’s house and Jamila’s office. Brimming with clarity in structure and purpose, Dzhumakmatova’s screenplay is consolidated in Anthony Akera’s crisp editing.
Directors: Erke Dzhumakmatova, Emial Atageldiev
Screenwriter: Erke Dzhumakmatova
Producers: Erke Dzhumakmatova, Kairat Birimkulov, Katerina Tarbo-Ignatenko, Pavel Feldman,
Alexander Seliverstov, Alexandra Hoesdorff, Désirée Nosbusch
Cast: Ainura Kachkynbek Kyzy, Aliman Ryspekova, Begaiym Asanakunova, Kalipa Tashtanova, Atay Omurbekov
Cinematography: Erzhan Arakeev
Editing: Anthony Akera
Production design: Svetlana Dubina
Music: Rafaelle Petrucci
Production companies: OYMO Studio, Human Films
Venue: Busan International Film Festival (Vision Asia)
In Kyrgyz, Russian
89 minutes
