sábado, 21 de septiembre de 2013

THE LIGHT THIEF (aka Svet-Ake)

The Kyrgyz film of 2010. Director: Aktan Arym Kubat (b. 1957). is his fifth feature film. Written by Talip Ibrahimov and Aktan Arym Kubat. Producers: Denis Vaslin, Thanassis Karathanos, and Marc Baschet. Cast: Aktan Arym Kubat as Svet-Ake, Taalaikan Abazova as Bermet, Askat Sulaimanov as Bekzat, Asan Amanov as Esen, Stanbek Toichubaev as Mansur.

Awards: Locarno International Film Festival,
Toronto International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Eurasia International Film Festival.

In this colorful modern-day parable of good and evil, a man who is guilty of minor corruption for benevolent reasons comes up against a man deep in major corruption for his own profit. Svet-ake is a good-hearted family man who works for the electric company in a small Kyrgyz village. A number of folks in Svet-ake's neighborhood are seniors on a fixed income, and he helps them out by adjusting their meters on the sly to keep their bills low. Bezkat is a powerful but corrupt politician from the city who wants to make a quick windfall by selling part of Svet-ake's village to a Chinese firm. Played with wry humanity by writer-director Aktan Arym Kubat, the trusting Mr. Light strikes a suspect bargain with that rich developer running for local office, as unemployment threatens the survival of the community. This comedy-drama develops into affecting tale of solidarity and ordinary decency amid the injustices and hardships of a changing world.

Running time: 80 min.  In Kyrgyz with English subtitles.

The screening will take place at SRH on Saturday September 28, at 5pm. It will be introduced and commented on by Alma Kunanbaeva.

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