It is the helmer's statement that closes his drama “Bauryna Salu” inspired by his own experience as the 1st born whose life was changed forever due to the old nomadic tradition that the film owns its title to: “My parents gave me away to my grandmother when I was one year old. I grew up with a void and I still carry this feeling inside me'. “Bauryna Salu” – the Kazakh term for the old tradition that started in the times of communal living, but has still continued to be practiced ‘disregarding social status and financial situation of a family' (quote from the title cards) is in focus of the movie which shows a devastating effect such practices have on children who grow up disconnected from their parents.
Bauryna Salu is screening at Black Movie
In one of the film's most heart-crushing scenes, we get to observe the ritual of gifting a baby to his grandmother who is symbolically ‘giving birth ‘ by pulling the screaming, traumatized toddler's body through her sweater to take it out from below the skirt. “Now you have the 1st born at the age over 40. Your son is the keeper of the heart in your home” says one of the wrinkled ladies who also takes some time to bless the child, and protect him from ‘evil eyes and sharp tongues'. What the unfortunate boy won't be protected from later on, is a life in a household filled with silence about his roots, and alienation from almost anyone else except the matriarch.
We are introduced to the 12-year-old Yersultan (Yersultan Yermanov) as he is collecting salt together with a large group of other children. It's a hard labor under the sun, with no one seeing anything wrong about kids performing it. The boy, who lives alone with his grandmother in a secluded nomadic village, often skips school to work and earn money to save for a trip to his parents, who have not contacted him since he was given away. Yersultan's only evidence of their existence is an old photograph showing a young couple holding a baby.
The international audiences were introduced to Askhat Kuchinchirekov as the lead character Asa in Sergey Dvortsevoy's multi-awarded drama “Tulpan” in 2008, which brought him Muhr AsiaAfrica Award in Dubai for the Best Actor in a Feature Film. In “Bauryna Salu” it is his turn to introduce a great child actor, Yersultan Yermanov, who shows great versatility in his portrayal of an emotionally scarred, introverted boy stumbling on obstacles whichever way he turns. Additionally, he lets a couple of insinuations about his childhood dreams penetrate the script, and lends them to Yersultan's best friend, who wants to escape to Almaty to start an acting career.
The scene in which we see Yersultan grieving after the death of his grandmother, with the face so close to the lense that there is no escaping from the full scale of pain and loneliness it expresses, is the film's strongest moment and also marks a switch between two different parts of the story. As the old saying goes, watch out what you wish for. When the boy's only dream comes true, the family come-together is in no way of the nature he was hoping for. He is picked up from the village by his mother, and forced to sit in silence all the long way to his new home in another part of the country. There is no connection whatsoever between him his parents and the younger sibling. It is a touching, impressive debut by the Khazakh helmer.
It is the incredible beauty of the vast Khazakh landscape that already offers an eye candy, and DoP Zhanrbek Yeleubek knows how to turn it into his advantage through low angle shots that accentuate the contrast between the bright blues skies and vegetation in the background, with the muddy-gray soil.
“Bauryna Salu” held its premiere in the New Directors section of teh 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival in autumn last year, and was awarded Best Youth Film at Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It is currently screening at Black Movie Film Festival.
