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Joqtau

​悼歌

Kazakhstan | 2024 | Drama | 70min | Debut Feature

Director: Aruan Anartay
Screenplay: Aruan Anartay
Producer: Aruzhan Dossymkozha, Alexandra Sytnik, Aruan Anartay
Sound: Ilya Gariyev
Music: Sanzhar Baiterekov
Cast: Yermek Shynbolatov, Isbek Abilmazhinov, Irina Balkova

Synopsis
 

Darkhan, a young scientist, returns home after a seven-year absence, accompanied by his girlfriend Elena. His Grandfather Sagat invites them to join him on a journey to his ancestral homeland deep inland. As they embark on this transformative trip, all three must confront the challenge of acceptance and understanding, testing the bonds that connect them.

Festival&Award

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Locarno Film Festival Concorso Cineasti del Presente

- Official Selection 

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Hong Kong Asian Film Festival

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2024 Internacional De Cinema São Paulo Int'l Film Festival

Director's Note
 

My family’s origins lie in the harsh lands of the Steppe. I always wanted to accompany my grandfather to his village, but we never went while he was alive. I made this film to process his loss and understand what he left me with.

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Aruan Anartay

Aruan Anartay (Anartayev) is an emerging director and producer from Kazakhstan with a passion for poetic cinema and a keen eye for filmmaking that combines elements of both fiction and documentary. He holds an author’s course with the great Kazakhstani director Darezhan Omirbayev. In addition to his work as a director, Aruan also works as a producer of large creative documentary films.

His debut short film The Warm Lake (2021) was screened at Eurasian Film festival, Imagineindia Film Festival and many other film festivals. The screenplay for his debut feature film Joqtau was created during the Central Asian Scriptwriting Lab by UNESCO in 2021 and the project has become the one of the winners of the National Kazakhstan Pitching contest in 2022.

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