Together with My Father

Daniyar Salamat’s second film is a small family drama that brings us to contemporary Almaty and reflects on a dysfunctional family and its impact on a child. The director is a great observer of small details and the psyche of his characters. Although the subject is universal, the situation of a father bringing up his son is quite modern, and not only for Kazakh cinema.
The father-son relationship between 8-year-old Baisal (Nurmakhambet Aitenov) and his father Karim (Bakhytzhan Alpeisov) is very moving. The two spend a lot of time together, sharing the cooking and even a bed, as well as a complicated relationship with the boy’s mother. Their everyday routine shows how intimate their relationship is, even though it’s not smooth all the time.
Baisal is subjected to the turbulent lives of the adults, not only when his father enjoys alcohol and the company of a strange woman, but especially when he visits his mother, whose new, drinking man shows his aggression. The boy’s emotional life is influenced by it all. The film is a true-to-life story shot in the realistic style so typical of Kazakh cinema, and is certainly a promising new voice from Central Asia. (LC)