It is often from distant countries that the most interesting films emerge today, far from the standardization of much of Western cinema. LEFFEST presents a focus on the Cinema of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan), conceived with the curators Gulnara Abikeyeva and Julia Kim.
A selection of 12 films spanning from the New Waves of the 1980s to the present, some of them introduced by the directors themselves. Physical and mental landscapes, vast mountains and steppes, cities, faces and gestures, multiple cultural identities, a singular mystique, unease, a kind of collective solitude, and, in many of them, a sweet melancholy that mesmerizes us – it is time to discover these powerful and unique works and to look at them with the recognition they deserve.
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This year the Lisboa Film Festival will present a large special program dedicated to the cinema of Central Asia, where West and East, modernity and antiquity are astonishingly intertwined.
The program features 12 films from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. All of them are winners of international film festivals. They showcase the nomadic cultures of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, the sedentary cultures of Uzbeks and Tajiks, and, most importantly, the diversity of cultures and film stories. These films are like a kaleidoscope of beauty and passion, energy, resilience, survival, laughter, and sorrow.
This retrospective spans more than thirty years, beginning with the Kazakh film The Needle (1988) by Rashid Nugmanov, which became emblematic for the entire Soviet Union in declaring the end of the Soviet era. Its main character – the singer Viktor Tsoi –proclaimed: “From now on, we will act!”
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR gave the countries of Central Asia the opportunity to create their own national films. Freedom and the awareness of national identity became the privileges that independence brought. Thus, audiences will see such beautiful films, full of exoticism and traditions, as The Adopted Son (Beshkempir, 1998) by Kyrgyz director Aktan Arym Kubat and the Tajik film Angel on the Right Shoulder (2002) by Djamshed Usmonov; in Muslim tradition, it is believed that each person has angels, and the one on the right records your good deeds. The film Tulpan (2008) by Sergey Dvortsevoy, permeated with the scent of the steppe, won the Grand Prix in the “Un Certain Regard” program at Cannes.
Cinema of Central Asia is also powerful for its social content. In the 34 years of independence, a new generation has emerged, one that boldly speaks about problems such as poverty, corruption, bullying at school, and violence against women. Among such films are Harmony Lessons (2013) by Emir Baigazin, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlinale and of the Grand Jury Award at LEFFEST; Move (2014) by Marat Sarulu; 40 Days of Silence (2014) by Saodat Ismailova; and Abel (2023) by Elzat Eskendir.
The program also includes films filled with irony and humor. For example, in the Kazakh film Walnut Tree (2016) by Yerlan Nurmukhambetov, guests gather for a wedding; one family brings a carpet as a gift, but when they are not given the chance to make a toast, they decide to take the carpet back. Full of sunlight and humor is Sunday (2023) by Shokir Kholikov, about Uzbek elders living in a village who cannot handle new gadgets. This film received a prize at the Shanghai Film Festival.
In short, this retrospective is designed both for refined cinephiles, who value innovations in cinematic language, and for ordinary viewers, who wish to discover new cultures and worlds. It is especially worth noting that the program will include the historical film The Fall of Otrar (1991) by Ardak Amirkulov — about the defense of the steppe city of Otrar against the forces of Genghis Khan. The film has just been restored on the initiative of Martin Scorsese’s foundation and has begun a new world tour.
As you can see, the retrospective features both relatively old films from the late 1980s and completely new ones from 2025, such as Mergen by Chingiz Narynov, where the script interweaves motifs from a novel by Chingiz Aitmatov with the realities of today.
This retrospective is not only an artistic event but also an academic gesture: it allows us to trace how the national film schools of Central Asia were shaped at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, colonial legacies and post-Soviet transformations. At the same time, these films are living human stories of love and memory, struggle and hope, resonating with audiences all over the world. LEFFEST invites viewers to discover Central Asian cinema as a space of cultural and emotional dialogue, where past and present merge into new artistic forms, and the future is born before our eyes.
Gulnara Abikeyev
[programme co-curator, with Julia Kim]