Ainazik and her grandfather Sagyn live beside a river in a rural part of Kyrgyzstan, a desolate region of barren mountains and implacable winds. Life there has its simple pleasures: a candlelit cabin, a pet goldfish, the wind in the rushes. And they have each other. But when Ainazik’s mother Perizat arrives to bring them to the city to live with her, the move has unforseen consequences for them all.

Marat Sarulu (Songs from the Southern Seas) directs this quietly devastating portrait of the erosion of family life in a corner of the world rarely seen on film. Every shot is lovingly composed, lingering over texture and detail, and finding desolate beauty in a landscape where the wind, howling through steppes and city alike, is a metaphor all on its own. The cast of first time actors is uniformly touching, especially Perizat Ermanbaeva as the beleaguered mother, sleepwalking through the rubble of her life before finally letting the pressure of her situation show. At once intimate and epic in scale, Move is a painstakingly crafted study of a family torn apart by economic forces.

Alistair Daniel
Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

 

Please note that the festival is over 18s only