The "Kyrgyz Miracle
It can be said that Kyrgyz film production, despite some minimal productions, dates back to the Second World War. Indeed, at that time, the Moscow film studios moved partly to Bishkek. However, the Kyrgyz cinema acquires an enormous importance at the birth of the "Kyrgyz Miracle", at the beginning of the 1960s. This term refers to the first generation of filmmakers from the Kyrgyz Soviet Republic; Bolotbek Shashiev, Tolomush Okeev and Melis Oubukeev. The first, Shamchiev, made his film debut as an actor, playing the lead role in Larissa Chepitko's Hot Heat (1963). In 1966, Shamchiev directed his first short documentary film Manastchi. This director undoubtedly left his mark on Central Asian culture with the adaptation of short stories by the Kyrgyz writer Tchinguiz Aïtmatov. This is the case of the film The White Boat (1975), which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975. The style of the director Tolomush Okeev is characterized by his realism and his search for formal beauty. His film The Sky of Our Childhood (1967) is considered one of the great Kyrgyz classics of the 7th art. As for Mélis Ouboukeev, he released the short documentary film The Mountain River (1960), which testifies to the language of the young generation.
Nowadays
Before the 1990s, Kyrgyz cinema was a small part of Russian and Soviet cinema. Kyrgyz productions can be distinguished by the language of the films concerned or simply by the nationality of the directors. In 1991, with the independence of the Republic, the Kyrgyz film industry experienced major transition difficulties. Since the end of the 1990s, Aktan Arym Kubat has been one of the few Kyrgyz directors to make a place for himself in international cinema. He has directed The Thief of Light (2011) and Centaur (2016). The first work, presented at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, tells the story of an electrician helping the underprivileged inhabitants of a lost village in Kyrgyzstan, while Centaur tends to illustrate a certain freedom in the country, through the story of a worker stealing horses. We should also mention the director Ernest Abdyjaparov (also co-screenwriter of Centaur ) and his film Boz Salkin (2007), whose plot is based on the traditional custom of Ala Kachuu called " the bride's theft". According to the director, the film is so popular in Kyrgyzstan that 20% of the girls born that year are named after the main character: Asema.
