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29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026

Experimentum Crucis

Taras Popov | Vladimir Tulkin | Kazakhstan | 1995 | 52' | | IFFR 1997

Disconcerting video-vérité portrait of young boys in a work camp in Kazakhstan where the Stalinist terror is still maintained, even if the name Stalin has been replaced by Jesus. The film includes distressing footage that looks as if it comes straight from a Nazi concentration camp. In addition, the balding heads of tormented Asian boys have a confusing kind of beauty. The film was shot by someone who himself worked in the camp for ten years, so it could be called a kind of auto-ethnography.

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Film details

Country of production
Kazakhstan
Year
1995
Festival edition
IFFR 1997
Length
52"
Medium/Format
Betacam SP PAL

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