A slow-paced exploration of disintegrating family ties in the snowy village of Aksuat. This film by Serik Aprymov, an important representative of the Kazakh New Wave and a student of Sergei Solovyov, was shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 1999.
The films tells the story of two brothers from Aksuat whose lives have taken very different directions. Older brother Aman has stayed in the village: he has a big house, is part of the local mafia, and is engaged to the daughter of the mafia boss. Younger brother Kanat has moved to the city and become a «new Kazakh, ” but, having spent all his money and accumulated debts, returns to Aksuat to ask his brother for help. He does not come alone, but together with his pregnant wife Zhanna. Soon, Kanat gets into trouble and disappears, leaving Zhanna and the newborn child with Aman. His brother takes care of them, but his own comfortable life is now under threat. His fellow villagers do not like the fact that he is living with a city girl. The mafia boss fires him and breaks off Aman’s engagement to his daughter. The villagers push Aman to leave for the city, but he sees Zhanna and her child off and chooses to stay in Aksuat.
Aksuat is a sort of sequel to Aprymov’s previous film The Last Stop (1989). The action takes place in the same Kazakh village (where Aprymov was born), a strange, semi-abandoned, absurd place. Recreating his own Aksuat on film, Aprymov debunks the Soviet myth of the village as a place of traditional culture and high values. He shows that the patriarchal structure of a village, with an elder, religiosity, and protectionism, is closest to that of the mafia (the nickname of the film’s mafia boss—Shal—means «old man»). But Aprymov’s attention is not focused exclusively on the social organization of life in Aksuat. The film is filled with documentary detail: Muslim funeral rites, sheepskin preparation, long conversations, a chaotic construction. Aprymov manifests the poetry of the place, rhyming the uneven snow cover with the bluesy syncopations in Kazbek Spanov’s music.
The film will be screened in Kazakh and Russian with Russian subtitles.
Aksuat
Director: Serik Aprymov
Kazakhstan, Japan. 1998. 78 min.
16+