5th Wiesbaden Festival of Central and Eastern European Film - goEast

At the goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, the FIPRESCI Prize (details Arrow.) went to Rebirth Island (Kaladan Kelgen Kyz) by Rustem Abdrashov (Kazakhstan):

A chronicle of everyday life in a village in Kazakhstan at the beginning of the 1960s and a story of coming of age, art and love of a young boy, Kaladan Kelgen Kyz (Rebirth Island) is also more than this. It is a little jewel imbued by the medium of poetry, with the poems of the director’s father being recited by him on the soundtrack. The poetry of the film is concerned with time and space: on the one hand, thanks to a contemplative mise en scène, there is a celebration of the landscape of Kazakhstan and, on the other hand, the strong nostalgic evocation of things past as underscored by the poems and the use of sepia colours. Thus, Rustem Abdrashov takes up the torch of poetry which had been handed down by his father, but transposes this into the language of cinema with occasional daring stylistic touches like the introduction of scenes in colour to express sensual moments such as the blue of the sky or the redness of an apple. Rebirth Island may tell us a rather classical story, but transcends this through the beauty of its staging. (Marc Lepoivre)