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  • Japan Premiere

Competition

Red Pomegranate

Qyzyl Anar

Director: Sharipa URAZBAYEVA

2021|Kazakhstan|113min|Language: kazakh|Subtitles: English, Japanese

Date Time Venue
3/15 Tue 21:00 Umeda Burg 7: Theater7
3/17 Thu 10:40 ABC Hall
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Starring
Ainur BERMUKHAMBETOVA
Bolat MOMYNZHANOV
Kadyrgazy KUANDYKOV
Synopsis

Recently-married Anar (Ainur BERMUKHAMBETOVA) has relocated to a remote rural village in Kazakhstan with her unreliable husband and her rebellious stepson, Adil. Separated from her parents, made unemployed, and soon to be abandoned by her man, she also has to deal with pregnancy while being anaemic. When her husband’s creditors arrive and she learns that Adil was raped, she has to somehow find a way to fight back against sorrow and misfortune...

Writer/director Sharipa URAZBAYEVA’s sophomore feature Red Pomegranate is a return to her woman-against-a-conservative-world storytelling, as seen with her first film “Mariam”, only here the litany of issues is ripe for melodrama. Running counter to expectations is the presentation, which is an austere drama driven by Ainur BERMUKHAMBETOVA’s powerful performance - those expressive eyes! - silences and a sense of isolation, and poetic imagery drawing upon pomegranates, a symbol of rebirth and moral purification.

[Jason MAHER]

Director: Sharipa URAZBAYEVA