Movies from Kyrgyzstan were shown in the cinema of Lund, Sweden.

Tamam presented documentary movies from Kyrgyzstan at Kino in Lund between the dates 23^rd of May till 6^th of June 2011. Three prize winning social documentaries from Kyrgyzstan named “Almaz”, “Long distance Love”, “Manas birth as a premonition” has been shown three Mondays in a row.

Around 60 young people came to see and enjoyed the films during the festival.  At the beginning of each session a representative of Tamam, an EVS volunteer from Kyrgyzstan, was welcoming the guests and making a brief introduction of the movie and the project in general. Afterwards the audience had a chance to ask the question from the residents of the country.  


In the first movie about a life story  of Kyrgyz boy Almaz was depicted. The story about the family values, education and life of indigenous people in Kyrgyzstan fascinated the audience and they couldn’t stand asking questions and giving comments. “Watching the film I started thinking how we, Swedish youngsters, take for granted the family relationships and the privileges we have here. You could see how the families in Kyrgyzstan are attached to each other”, reflected Isabel Sundberg, youth ombudsmen of Lund.

The second movie has showed very crucial problem of young people as unemployment and labour migration to Russia. Long distance love between a young family couple that had to be apart and support the family and get means to live in Moscow was finally reunited. A family from Kyrgyzstan that lives in Sweden for 5 years already was invited to Kino. After the movie Gulshan, a mother of 2 children, told she could remember her home country, but felt unhappy to see in what difficult conditions still people live. “I am happy to be in Sweden with my family and know that my children are not going to come across those problems” she told.

“Manas birth as a premonition” is a documentary that could depict current life of Kyrgyzstan people in the connection with their old epic Manas. The story was full of interesting interviews of the Kyrgyz all over the world, their destinies and attitude to the situation in the country. “It was a good chance for me to get to know about unknown Kyrgyzstan.  My sister in law has been to Bishkek (capital city) several times and helped poor people. It is a good way to attract people’s attention to that region” shared with us Lise Dakl.

Of course there were obstacles that made it harder to carry out the project. Tamam has concluded that next occasions they have to work harder on reaching young people. The  festival time coincided with the end of the academic year of youngsters in Lund. So, many have left to their homes and others were busy with exams.

Nevertheless, the project was a success among the audience. Because, it gave another perspective of life of youth in the other part of the world, depicting their priorities, problems and peculiarities. Moreover, it was educational for local residents to know about Central Asian region due to the current political and economic situation due to the increasing number of refugees coming to Sweden from there.