Introduction

A mischievous father and his gentle, beautiful daughter live a quiet life in a vast plain until two young men fall for the girl. The love triangle leads to a wholly unexpected turn of events in an astounding story that incorporates unimaginable beauty with a strong social message.
Set on a prairie in Kazakhstan, this simple story, dealing with the heartwarming relationship of a father and his daughter, and the girl’s part in a love triangle, is powerfully realized in a series of striking visual images framed in perfectly calculated compositions. But the wholly unexpected message that we are confronted with at the end completely upends our original impression. By eliminating dialogue, director Alexander Kott accentuates the allegorical nature of the story and purifies its message. Forcing us to concentrate on the images, this ingenious approach hones our aesthetic sensibilities. Inspired by an actual incident that occurred in Kazakhstan in 1949, Kott depicts the fate that awaits the unwitting characters with the utmost affection. This beautiful yet apocalyptic tale shows that this promising director, whose first film was widely acclaimed in Russia, has come into his own.