Renaissance Island
(Ostrov vozrozhdenia)
by Roustem Abdrachev
Kazakhstan
Script: Galia Eltai, Gaziz Nasyrov, Roustem Abdrachev
Cineamtographer: Khasan Kydyraliev, Renat Kosai
Sound: Askar Ahmetov, Elena Maslova
Music: Kuat Shildebaev
Cast: Temirzhan Daniyarov, Zhanel Makazhanova, Sayat Merekenov, Nurzhuman Ihtymbayev
Production: Kazakhfim, Han Tengri
Year: 2004
35 mm, B & W and Colour, 80 min,
OV with English Subtitles
French Electronic Subtitles
Frrench Premiere
With kind uspport of Kazakhfilm
The party new leader has settled near Aralia with his family. His daughter Zhibek falls in love with a school mate Zharas. The parents, the head teacher and the inhabitants of the village don’t understand their feeling of love and condemn them.
Renaissance Island is a poetical elegy based on a poem by Zharaskan Abdrachev, the film-maker’s own father. This very poetical black and white film with short colour flashes has frightening and memorable images (the water melon in the first sequence, the fishes out of water), as well as calmly nostalgic images. As always with Abdrachev, the frames are pictorial and the minor characters are amazingly alive.
A real gem unreleased in France.
