Kurak - IFFDAY

Official selectionBangladesh July Memorial PrizeVision of Jiseok Award

WomenHuman Rights/Labor/Social

The film opens with newsreel footage of a 2020 women’s protest in Bishkek. The rally for women’s rights is violently disrupted by opposing men, and police who had been standing by suddenly begin arresting the female protesters. From this scene symbolizing the present state of Kyrgyz women’s rights, the film crosses into fiction, layering the stories of two young women—Meerim, who secretly works as a webcam model, and Nargiza, who has just started a romantic relationship. As their stories unfold, archival footage of women’s rights exhibitions, performance art, and protests weaves through the narrative, providing context for their extreme circumstances. As suggested by the title ‘kurak,’ meaning patchwork in Kyrgyz, this film powerfully paints how the voices of various women—not just Meerim and Nargiza, but all the women in the film—break through a massive cartel of oppression, interlocking piece by piece into a single woven narrative.

Programme note by PARK Sun Young

Stills5

Screenings4

Sun, 09/21

09:0010:54

LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 5

296Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Mon, 09/22

09:3010:59

LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 7

383KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Tue, 09/23

16:0017:54

CGV Centum City 3

427Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Thu, 09/25

20:3021:59

CGV Centum City 4

582KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Film details

Director: Erke DZHUMAKMATOVA, Emil ATAGELDIEV
Country/Region: Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, Serbia, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy
Year: 2025
Length: 89min
Section: Vision: Asia
Edition: Busan International Film Festival 2025, No. 30
Premiere: World Premiere
Format: DCP, Color
Selection: Official selection
Elsewhere: Festival page Letterboxd IMDb TMDB Douban