ACF
Asian Cinema Fund
Script Development Fund
2012 Script Development Fund
LIST LENIN?!.jpg)
| Category | Asian Project |
|---|---|
| Project | LENIN?! |
| Director | Marat ALYKULOV |
| Country | Kyrgyzstan |
| Director's Profile | Marat began as a camera assistant before enrolling in the Kyrgyz Institute of Fine Arts. He specialized in cinema and screenwriting, graduating with the 16mm short film The Toilet in a time when regional short films were limited to video. His debut One Day in the Summer (1998) won Best Documentary Director at the Almaty Film Festival and his first attempt to find his own cinematic language, Mouse (2003) was awarded the special jury prize at the Baku Film Festival. His follow up Border (2006) won the Grand Prix at Almaty and many other international prizes. He works as a screenwriter for film and television in between his personal film projects such as documentary State & Country and his exploratory social drama Old Man (2011). He lives in Bishkek and is a member of the Union of Cinematographers of Kyrgyzstan. |
- Synopsis
- In the small town of Karakol, Kyrgyzstan; punks Skull, Troll and Chicka are the outcasts. They spend most of their time scavenging scrap metal from the town dump to earn easy cash. They never earn much from their spoils and the boys want more. A payday worthy of their exploits. Hearing that the big money is to be made in bronze they target the biggest statue in town. The one of the funny bald man in the suit with his arm stretched out over the town square. They reason that if they don’t know the man of the statue, perhaps no one else does… How wrong they are. The town is in the middle of municipal elections and the boys have unwittingly given the candidates the ultimate buzz issue. Both use the theft to highlight their own political agenda and as the situation spirals out of control the boys find themselves embroiled in politics, venturing to the city morgue and even to the library, as they try to learn just who Lenin is…and how do they get rid of him?
- Director’s Note / Intention
- Lenin never visited Kyrgyzstan, yet there are over 4000 statues of him all over the country. Most people under twenty have no knowledge of who Lenin is, or of his relevance to a country who lived under the Soviet banner for three generations. LENIN?! explores the surreal nature of a community in the midst of an identity shift; no longer communist, not yet fully capitalist, with a continually changing political landscape. Who better to tell such a story through than a group of teenagers, a time in life defined by transition? The film is a cross-over in every way. A narrative that appeals to east and west, a story that bridges history and current events and captures youth and mature audiences alike. At its heart it is a coming of age story. A universal journey celebrating a time in life when you explore your place in a world defined by its history.