The story is set in 1979 in Kazakhstan, that was then still part of the Soviet Union. Three boys, the local boy Karim, the Jewish Jacob and the Russian Valera, live and go to secondary school together in the big city of Alma Ata. Three rebels and yet they are also ordinary pupils. After the last schoolday they set out to celebrate, slip into the bar at the skating rink and steal an electric guitar. When Valera’s stepfather, with whom he has a difficult relationship, finds the guitar in Valera’s room, he calls the police. The cops take Valera with them, think he ismember of a gang and beat him up. Karim and Jacob find out that their buddy has been betrayed by his stepfather and want to get their own back. This unintentionally results in the death of Valera’s stepfather. A severely wounded Valera is kicked out onto the streets by the police. He seeks shelter with Karim and Jacob, who house him in an attic, but don’t know how to treat his wounds. They go in search of painkillers and find them with drugdealers. Valera doesn’t look as if he will hang on.The festival also screened both of Amir Karakulov’s previous features: Razlukhnitsa (1991), that described an impossible three-cornered relationship almost without words, and The Doves’ Belliinger (1994) which again concentrated on the poetic image. Last Holiday also describes harsh and sometimes incomprehensible life in the Kazak capital in moody and sombre images.
