Yerzhanov's The Owners wins Grand Prix at International Film Festival in Lebanon

Kazakh movie The Owners directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov has won the Grand Prix at the International Cultural Resistance Film Festival that was held on November 12-17 in Beirut, Lebanon, Tengrinews reports.

In addition, The Owners won the NETPAC (The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award, a prestigious Asian award that is usually handed at international film festivals to promote Asian cinema by spotlighting exceptional films and discovering new talents.

Yerzhanov’s film got into the Official Selection of the Cannes Festival and premiered in the Special Screenings of the 67th Cannes Film Festival. 

Filmed in the genre of absurd drama with elements of caricature of reality, the movie received high praise from critics and continues to do so. The movie was shown in various other festivals in Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, France and Canada and received numerous awards.

The Owners tells a story of two brothers and their sister, who lose their house because of the corrupt system in the country. A local man evicts them from their home with the support of his relative – a district policeman. The young people have no relatives who can stand up for them. Nevertheless, they are not going to leave the house. They are ready to fight for it.

Another Kazakh movie presented at the Festival was Nagima directed by Zhanna Issabayeva. The premier of Nagima took place during the 15th Busan International Film Festival. The movie was screened in the Gala Presentation session.

Nagima is a story of two girls who graduate from an orphanage and struggle to survive. The protagonist Nagima works in a café and makes only barely enough to pay the rent of the shabby house they live in and help her pregnant roommate Anya. Nagima steals leftovers from her work and tries to keep her little world together.

When Anya dies in childbirth, Nagima despite her stubborn desire to keep the newborn baby girl away from the same fate, witnesses her taken away to an orphanage. Left all alone, she tries to find her mother. Her mother rejects her once again and the circle of hopelessness seems to tighten around Nagima.

Reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko, writing by Assel Satubaldina