Beshkempir

  • 91'
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • 1998
Beshkempir, Abdikalikov's feature début, is the first truly independent film from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. The maker was inspired by an ancestral custom that still applies among Kyrgyz: if a woman can't have children, the couple is offered a child that is no longer suckling.Beshkempir looks like any other child: he leads a peaceful and untroubled life, joins in the games and mischief that match his age and at the start of his puberty he has his first innocent sexual and amorous feelings for the girl next door. In other words, the life of a child on his way to maturity. Until one day he finds out the terrible news that his Mum and Dad are not his biological parents. Overnight his best friendturns into his rival and even his enemy and his dream girl goes off cycling with someone else. If his mother is not his mother and his father is not his father, our young hero thinks, then he is no one either. Despite the fact that the painful discovery makes his life unbearable, Beshkempir tries to overcome his problems.Without becoming sentimental or moralistic, Beshkempir gives an unvarnished and penetrating portrait of Kirghiz youth. The film shared a Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.
Director
Aktan Abdykalykov
Countries of production
Kyrgyzstan, France
Year
1998
Festival Edition
IFFR 1999
Length
91'
Medium
35mm
International title
The Adopted Son
Language
Russian
Sales
Celluloid Dreams
Screenplay
Marat Sarulu, Aktan Abdykalykov
Local Distributor
Contact Film
Director
Aktan Abdykalykov
Countries of production
Kyrgyzstan, France
Year
1998
Festival Edition
IFFR 1999
Length
91'
Medium
35mm
International title
The Adopted Son
Language
Russian
Sales
Celluloid Dreams
Screenplay
Marat Sarulu, Aktan Abdykalykov
Local Distributor
Contact Film