OREANDA-NEWS. September 03, 2008. AmCham Member the Social Research Center at the AUCA presented lecture “Contemporary Kyrgyz Cinema in the Age of Globalization”, Featuring of the Documentary “Alhambra”, reported the press-centre of AmCham.

Kyrgyz cinema, which reached its peak in the 1960s and1970s, is still experiencing the challenges of the post-Soviet transition. Still, it has become a topic of vivid discussions in recent years. Movies like “Beshkempir,” “Sunduk Predkov [Box of Ancestors],” “Bozsalkyn,” and other features and documentaries have been seen as the start of a film renaissance in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyz cinema is still searching for ways to find and develop its particular national character while also developing global cultural values and orientations. 

Ernest Abdyjaparov, who has produced a large number of movies that have been shown at various international film festivals, will present his documentary “Alhambra” and talk briefly about the importance of Kyrgyz cinema as a part of world cinematography.

“Alhambra” won a special prize at a film festival in Iran. It is about the lives of creative people after the Soviet Union’s collapse. The main character of the film, a talented guitar player, dreams of performing Francesco Tarrega’s Alhambra but he is forced, instead, to provide for his family by selling tobacco and beer. 

Bio: Ernest Abdyjaparov won Kyrgyzstan’s national award for youth working in the field of cinema and TV (2001). He graduated from the Institute of Russian Language and Literature in 1979.

He worked as a teacher in rural schools in Kayirma and Enilchek until 1988. Since then, he has been working as an editor, assistant director, producer and director for the film studio Kyrgyzfilm.