| Director: | Eldar Shibanov |
|---|---|
| Production: | The applebox (Yuliya Levitskaya, Dias Shibanov) |
| Running Time: | 90’ |
| Language: | Russian, Kazakh, Mandarin |
| Country: | Kazakhstan |
| Main Cast: | Esil Amantay, Amina Gaziyeva, Zhazira Kaskey, Kuantay Abdimadi, Laura Tursunkanova, Sanjar Madi |
| Screenplay: | Eldar Shibanov, Yuliya Levitskaya |
| Cinematographer: | Dias Shibanov |
| Editor: | Arseniy Abdrakhmanov |
| Production Designer: | Munissa Guliyeva |
| Costume Designer: | Yevgeniya Artyomova, Daniyar Zhaxygeldinov |
| Sound: | Ilya Gariyev |
Cinema
Gornyi Luk (Mountain Onion)
Biennale College Cinema
Synopsis
About 11-year-old Jabai sells mountain onions alongside the highway and one day he catches his idol trucker having sex with his mom. Jabai and his sister, Saniya, embark on a journey from their small village in Kazakhstan to China, to obtain the only thing that will save their father and help him become a strong man, the ‘Golden Viagra’.
Director’s Statement
Men Can Cry; Women Can Get Angry. Mountain Onion is a feel-good movie which tells that first you need to listen to your inner voice and follow your feelings, and only then listen to others. The idea for the film came to me when I was driving along a highway near the border with China and saw how a father, mother, and son, about 11 years old, were riding the same tiny motorcycle. And I thought they were a happy family. But then I remembered my parents. That when they were about to get divorced, from the outside one might think that they were happy together. And I thought, maybe these parents on a motorcycle are not happy either, but this boy just doesn’t know it yet.
It was important for me to tell the story from the point of view of the children Saniya and Jabai, since, like the heroes of the film, I went through the process of divorce of my parents. This is a very difficult time, and it seems there is no happiness around and everything is over. But it’s not. Life goes on and your parents will not stop loving you even if they live separately. After the death of my father, thinking about that divorce time for long, I began to understand that the time when my parents were going through the separation process was also a time of happiness. Peculiar, but happy. We were still a family.
Therefore, I wanted to make a feel-good movie in which it seems to children that their parents will be together no matter what happens. And perhaps this hope will be transmitted to the audience.
PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION
PRODUCTION: Yuliya Levitskaya, Dias Shibanov – The applebox LLP
Koktem 1, 45 / 35
050040 – Almaty, Kazakhstan
Tel. +7 7073338309
dias.shibanov@gmail.com
PRESS OFFICE: La Biennale di Venezia – Biennale College Cinema
Tel. +39 0412726644
presscinema@labiennale.org
college-cinema@labiennale.org
