Feature film
Biografiya yunogo akkordeonista
Satybaldy Narymbetov · 1994
Synopsis
A mining village in southern Kazakhstan, in the post-war years. Esken, a mischievous boy of about ten, sees his father imprisoned for having welcomed Japanese prisoners to his table, and grows up in a world marked by denunciation. The film follows, in scenes by turns grave and comic, village life seen from a child's height: the secrets of the notables, neighbourhood quarrels, the hardness of daily life and the makeshift schemes of the kids.
Context
Drawn from the filmmaker's youth, the film was shot three years after independence, with Daoulet Taniev in the role of Esken; its Kazakh title, Közimniñ qarasy, means “the apple of my eye”. It won its author the prize “for humanity and kindness” at the Kinochok festival in Anapa as early as 1994, then special prizes in Germany, France and Latvia, and, in 1996, the independent prize named after the film historian Georges Sadoul. France released it in cinemas in February 1999, through Cinéma Public Films, under the title given here.
Who it is for
An hour and a half, in Kazakh with subtitles. A childhood chronicle in which the tragedies of Stalinism are conveyed through village scenes, accessible to all.
Prizes and reception
State Prize of Kazakhstan in 1996 and the Georges and Ruta Sadoul Prize the same year; released in cinemas in France in 1999.