Naguima - NAGIMA

In present-day Kazakhstan, Naguima, a reserved young woman who was abandoned at birth, shares a room in a dormitory district of Almaty with her soul-sister, Ania, whom she met at the orphanage. Ania, who is pregnant, dies while giving birth. Alone once more, Naguima will try again to form a family unit...

”Once they have finished their studies at school, all the orphans in Kazakhstan get detailed information about their birth parents : names, addresses and so on. It’s a constitutional right of orphans. The consequence of giving this information to our orphans is that almost 80% of them try to find their birth parents. This quest very often ends sadly for the orphans...At first, I lived with my parents in town, then, when I was 9 months old, my grandmother took me in and brought me back to her village. Then, when I was five, a couple of people I didn’t know came to the village and said, “ Hello, we’re your mum and dad. We’ve come to pick you up and take you back to town ...”