World premiere

The Land Where Winds Stood Still - Critics' Picks Competition Winner 2023

Local title
Maa, kus tuul seisab paigal - Kriitikute valikud võistlusprogrammi võitja 2023
Original title
Zhel toqtaghan zher
Director
Ardak Amirkulov
Country
Kazakhstan
Year
2023
Programme
Critics' Picks Competition
Genre
Historical drama
Subject
history, based on a true story

Windy steppes of Kazakhstan. Starving people ravenously eat donkeys and their weaker comrades. Frantic, raw, gripping, and cannibalistic western inspired by testimonies of the historical Great Famine of the 1930s. Ruthless Jupar with her two boys Jolan and Boshay runs for survival to reach her childhood village with hopes to find living relatives. A mother with no tears to cry endures rains, sandstorms, feverish famine, poisoned crops, hungry vultures, rotten meat, and greedy betrayals. Jupar will have to steal, cut throats, and protect her and others’ children to witness fates worse than death.

Nearly four million Kazakhs lived in Kazakhstan around 1926, but brutal Soviet collectivization resulted in the genocide of more than one million citizens until 1937.

Edvinas Pukšta

Director
Ardak Amirkulov
Cast
Zhanar Shokpanova, Salikh Beisenbai, Meirzhan Musakozha, Sagizbai Karabalin, Ersin Kalybaeva
Producer
Ardak Amirkulov, Diana Ashimova
DoP
Alexandr Rubanov
Runtime
Language
Kazakh
Subtitles
English

Screenings

6th Hall Apollo Kino Coca-Cola Plaza
Screening140601 / Maa, kus tuul seisab paigal
SubtitlesEnglish
Q&A guestsDiana Ashimova (Producer), Zhanar Shokpanova (Cast)
Q&A duration
Screening duration
2nd Hall Apollo Kino Coca-Cola Plaza
Screening150204 / Maa, kus tuul seisab paigal
SubtitlesEnglish
Screening duration
4th Hall Apollo Kino Solaris
Screening171401 / Maa, kus tuul seisab paigal
SubtitlesEnglish
Screening duration
Trailer
Q&A with the filmmaker