Awards : Premier prix au Festival de la CNI à Anapa, 2004
Plot synopsis
The party new leader has settled near Aralia with his family. His
daughter Zhibek falls in love with a school mate Zharas. The parents,
the head teacher and the inhabitants of the village don’t understand
their feeling of love and condemn them.
"The Island of Rebirth" is a poetical elegy based on a poem by
Zharaskan Abdrachev, the film-maker’s own father.
This very poetical black and white film with short colour flashes has
frightening and memorable images (the water melon in the first
sequence, the fishes out of water), as well as calmly nostalgic images.
As always with Abdrachev, the frames are pictorial and the minor
characters are amazingly alive. A real gem unreleased in France.
Festival International du Cinéma Asiatique, 2012