Cinema
Karakum
Synopsis
Robert, thirteen, leaves Hamburg alone to join his father, an engineer on a gas construction site in the middle of the Karakum. At the airport, the lorry driver Pjotr takes charge of him, and Murad, Pjotr's nephew, joins them. The lorry breaks down in the dunes, Pjotr goes off to look for water and does not return. The two boys, who do not speak the same language, build a sand yacht from what they find on the lorry.
Context
The film was shot in 1992 and 1993 in the Karakum, co-produced by Ottokar Runze's company, the Ylham studios of Ashgabat, CineScreen and two German public television channels, HR and WDR; the production ran into great difficulties. It was presented in Berlin in 1994, released in Turkmenistan the same year and in Germany in 1997; a re-edited version, about ten minutes shorter, was rereleased in cinemas in 2017.
Who it is for
About an hour and a half, in German, with passages in Russian and Turkmen; a film for children from eight years old. The two boys do not understand each other, and the film makes this its driving force.
Prizes and reception
Unicef Prize at the Berlin children's film festival in 1994, and Goldener Spatz at the Gera festival in 1995, awarded by both juries.
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