Official selectionInternational Film Festival of India - Vision Asia Award
Kuanysh, who is about to enroll at an American university, is the pride of his single mother, Dinara. Divorced when Kuanysh was young, Dinara has devoted herself to caring for her son, but as a teenager he has a world his mother is not privy to. One day, Kuanysh goes to a club with his friends and becomes involved in an assault incident, which turns into a homicide when the victim dies during the investigation. The wealthy and influential parents of Kuanysh’s friends attempt to make him the culprit, and now Dinara must protect her son by her own means. Darkhan Tulegenov who has been actively working across arthouse and commercial cinema, explores the disturbingly close relationship between Dinara and Kuanysh against the backdrop of the hypocrisy of Kazakhstan’s middle class. Continually blurring the boundaries between past and present, memory and delusion, his direction stands out, while Aigerim Mustafa’s performance impressively captures Dinara’s obsession and descent into madness.
Darkhan Tulegenov is a filmmaker from Kazakhstan. While attending the Temirbek Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts, he made the short film Rays of Dawn (2015), which won awards at several international film festivals, including Best Short Fiction at the Eurasia International Film Festival. His feature debut, Brothers (2022), won the Sprit of Cinema Award at the Oldenburg International Film Festival, while his second feature, Zhaza (2024), received a Special Mention in the Black Raven Competition at the Brussels International Film Festival. The Cord is his fourth feature.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
