Tales from the Road | Exploring Kyrgyzstan & Uzbekistan(2025)

Castles in the Sand(ru)

One of the highest achievements of the new wave of Kirghiz cinema, which emerged in the mid-1960s. This story of a boy building sandcastles on the shores of the Issyk-Kul Lake becomes a documentary parable on the tensions between an artist and society.

Misha(en)

The tragic story of the greatest soccer player the most have never heard of.

We're Going the Same Way(en)

At the non-places of this world lie the struggles of nobodies, to improve, overcome and survive. Their struggles suffocate them, they forget to live. They dislocate them, bring them together and pull them apart. Father and son share simple dreams and a lifetime on the road. Along an unromantic Silk Route they try to make some come true. Searching for a more livable future they break apart. As working class heroes they accept their fate. The film examines the added value of honesty in our actions.

Once Upon a Time in Tashkent(uz)

Pokser TV short-film

Abu Raykhan Biruni(uz)

A biographical film about one of the greatest Medieval scientists and scholars, Al-Biruni.

Neither live nor die in Tashkent(ru)

Chronicles of the cultural life of Tashkent (2007 – 2015). From the murder of Mark Weil to the wedding of Alisher Usmanov. Tashkent Biennale, apartment buildings, video art festival, conversations about nothing, amateur performances and operational shooting, advertising and much more. Tashkent, which no longer exists, just as these people are no longer in it.

Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan(en)

In the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan, tradition is king. Polo's still played with a freshly killed goat and the men still marry their women the old-fashioned way: by abducting them off the street and forcing them to be their wife. Bride kidnapping is a supposedly ancient custom that's made a major comeback since the fall of Communism and now accounts for nearly half of all marriages in some parts.

To Live and to Die in Samarkand(ru)

Having gone to Samarkand in search of traces of colonial culture, of which there were quite a few left there, having carefully photographed them, we suddenly discovered that it was not the dead buildings that were much more interesting, but the living carriers of this very colonial culture. The result is a film about people who live on the ruins of an empire.

Live and live in Fergana(ru)

About Russians living in Fergana, why they are not going to leave and what they see as the meaning of their presence on the land of Turkestan

Wings of Kyrgyzstan(en)

As „wings of men“ they became the faithful companion of a great nomadic nation thousands of years ago. Today, 28 years after the Soviet occupation, the little horse is an essential part of the cultural heritage and the search for identity of the modern Kyrgyz people. Based on its own story, a so called „good brown horse“ leads through the film and offers an insight of what it could mean to be „todays wings of men“. Told by a horse’s voice and through its eyes, this short film still is a documentary, but also a poetic journey to a nomadic culture.

Grandmother of Russian Feminism(ru)

Portrait of a typical European feminist - Olga Lipovskaya (1954-2021), journalist, translator, poet, founder of the women's non-profit organization St. Petersburg Center for Gender Issues (an educational and resource center for women and women's organizations), editor of the samizdat magazine Women's Reading.

Aral, Fishing in an Invisible Sea(uz)

A documentary film about the three remaining generations of fishermen in the Aral Sea-- Their everyday struggle to survive in one of the most dire and inhospitable places on the planet.

Uzbek Madonna(en)

Documentary highlighting clips and providing historical context to surviving silent films from Uzbekistan.

Jayuk(ky)

A 20-minute documentary film about the Kyrgyz people living by the Narym River.

Spending life at high altitude: Kyrgyz highlanders in the centuries long struggle with harsh environment(en)

The film story follows the international group of researchers who are performing the scientific expedition in a remote high altitude Kyrgyz village named Sary Mogol.

Tashkent: The End of an Era(en)

Tashkent: The End of an Era reconstructs the complex history of Tashkent by means of archive footage which has never been shown before and the testimonies of its inhabitants.

Kirgistan - Hochgebirgsland voller Schätze(de)

The Road From Karakol(en)

In the summer of 2011, mountaineer Kyle Dempster traveled the back roads of Kyrgyzstan on his bike. His goal: cross the country using old Soviet roads while climbing as many of the region's impressive peaks as possible. He was alone. He carried only a minimal ration of climbing gear. Ten Kyrgyz words complete its vocabulary. Part meditation on the true spirit of adventure and part epic travelogue, The Road from Karakol is the story of a unique spirit who cycled to the end of the road and decided to keep going.

I Lit the Fire!(ru)

The plot of the movie brings two people together - an immigrant filmmaker from Belarus and a 10 years old girl from the village in the south of Kyrgyzstan.

Aslanbek(en)

We get to meet Aslanbek—a teenage shepherd in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. “Aslanbek” is a story exploring the dynamics of relationship between humans and animals, what we can learn from the mountains, and about dreams. In short, it's a story about our forgotten values.