Directed by Aktan Abdykalykov
KYRGYZSTAN/FRANCE, 1998
81 MINS.
IN KYRGYZSTANI WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
Wendy Lidell
Fox Lorber Associates

"Shot in black and white, with the most discreet use of occasional colour in certain scenes, THE ADOPTED SON is as much a film about a culture as it is about one character. It exudes the rhythms, rituals, and sounds of village life in Kyrgyzstan with great formal and visual beauty... A film of supreme subtlety, THE ADOPTED SON is a celebration of local and regional idiosyncrasies, making us marvel both at what is different and what is similar in a foreign culture. (It) is a magical experience." -Piers Handling, Toronto Film Festival (1998)

Excerpted from the 1999 Sundance Film Festival catalog, by Nicole Guillemet:
It is early spring in Kyrgyzstan. Five women seated on a kilim in the village square pass a white cloth beneath their knees and pronounce the words, "It is not my son, but the son of the sky." With this ritual, the newly weaned child of a large family is named beshkempir, then given to a childless couple.

Thus begins Aktan Abdykalykov's poetically conceived tale of a boy's passage through life, from the pranks and horsing aroung, the expeditions into the far-off fields, to the fistfights and the first notice of the opposite sex, the first secret glimpses of the nude female body, and the first shy and tentative love. Then comes the terrible moment when Beshkempir learns of his adoption, followed by ostracism and loss.

Shot in artfully composed black and white with occasional short scenes in color, THE ADOPTED SON is a film about the growth of one character set against the rhythms an rituals of village life-threshing wheat, baking mud bricks in the sun, calling on the first date with a borrowed bicycle. The film is executed with an exquisite sensibility for the sounds and sights of the natural world, and the result is a vivid illusion of presence. Hassan Kidiraliev's strong but subtle cinematography also works, frame by frame, as fine photography, while Nurlan Nishanov's soundtrack is equally remarkable, both for its realism and the contrast of its repeated motifs-bird calls, rustling wind, rushing water-set against the dramatic progression of Beshkempir's life.

History of Kyrgyzstan:
The Kyrgz people belong to one of the most ancient nations in the world. The first written evidence of the Kyrgyz people as a nation was found in Chinese chronicles dated 2000 BC. They emerged from various groups settled in South Siberia and Central Asia. For many centuries they not only kept the memory of how they had acquired their name, but also the memory of all the things that distinguishes one nation from another, i.e. their language, culture, traditions, as well as the knowledge about the glorious deeds of their forefathers. Even during tragic periods in their history, they managed to survive and uphold independence. The active role of the Kyrgyz people in the history of Central Asia is documented in Arabic, Chinese, Iranian, and Turkish written sources.

The ancient Kyrgz populated the territory of northwestern Mongolia, which is evident in the name of one of its largest lakes, Kharachas-Huurwhich, meaning the Kyrgyz Lake. From 4 to 3 BC the Kyrgz people were one of the most powerful nomadic tribes, which repeatedly violated the Chinese border and stimulated China to start building the Great Wall.

From 2 to 1 BC, some of the Kyrgyz tribes set themselves free from the Hun domination and moved to the Enisei and Baikal regions. There they formed their first state known as the Kyrgyz Kaganat, which existed from 6 to 13 AD. This was also the time when the Kyrgz culture and the first written Kyrgz language started to form, confirmed by the runic inscriptions on stone monuments. The Kyrgyz Kaganat collapsed as the result of a foreign invasion and the Kyrgz people consequently lost their written language. However, the invasion did not destroy the people's memory. All the historical events of those times as well as data related to social and traditional customs were accumulated in the unprecedented folk epos "Manas."

In the 10th century, the Kyrgyz people occupied South Siberia, Altai and South-West Mongolia. But by the 12th century, their domination was limited only to the Alta and Sayan regions. In the meantime, the rest of the Kyrgz tribes, which remained dispersed over vast areas of Central Asia, continued to take an active part in the history of Central Asia. They managed to preserve their ethnic origins and became the focus of attention for other nations.

The final stage of the Kyrgz ethnogenesis is closely connected with Mongolians, Qirots (Kalias), Naimans, and other people of Central Asia. The 16th century completes the ethnogenesis of the Kyrgz people. The Kyrgz's kinship to many people of Central Asia is reflected in the meaning of "Kyrgz," which denotes "forty tribes."

Return to top