The XXII Kazan International Altyn Minbar Film Festival, which will be held in Kazan on September 4-8, within non-competition programs, provides the audience with a wide range of amazing films from around the world.

One of these programs is Etnic Cinema. The Growth Points will be presented at the public places of the Kazan Kremlin, and the audience can view family and children’s films. Five nights—five tales from all regions are awaiting those who want to attend open-air cinema. These are the films based on tales and epics of our multinational country.

In his film Coral Beads, Yuri Kurochka tells about Khakass legend. After a global ecological disaster, a young Merei is wandering around dead Earth in search of a meal and warmth. Her coral beads turn out to be magical. And these very beads can reborn the dead planet. The reminiscences of ancestors help the girl to overcome her despair and find the right path.

Denis Shablii in his The Mari Tales also resorts to the national folklore. The plot is based on a story about a weird teacher in an ordinary school. Instead of explaining the topic, he tells the students three stories that interpret the legends about Onar, Irga, and Chotkar—the heroes of the Mari. The ancient wisdom teaches the schoolchildren the history of their nation, friendship, and unity.

My North. This is the way Julia Krylova from the Murmansk region named her film. After metropolitan engineer Victor visits a northern shaman, some inexplicable forces of the North interfere with his life and plans. The high spirits—Yambé, the goddess of the underworld, and Myandash, the werewolf—are fighting over his life.

And the characters of adventure fantasy The Stone of Batyrs by Bashkortostani filmmaker Roman Pozhidaev set off on a journey willing to find a mysterious artefact. They are looking for the fifth arrowhead to put it back under the magic Stone of Batyrs before the lunar eclipse. But suddenly Bashkir Batyr Kinya traight out of the past appears on their way. The audience is awaited by mysteries, dangerous adventures and magic turns, trials of greed and, of course, love.

The same tale-based plot is in The Tears of Dragon by Tatyana Miroshnik from Buryatia. Khan Suranzan had worshipped the Fiery Dragon since his childhood. As a punishment for a misdeed, the mythical beast deprived Suranzan’s only son, Galshi, of his sanity. The boy was kind but feeble-minded. When the khan decides to find a wise wife for his son, the enemies conquer their land, and the heroes have to solve the mystery of the dragon’s tears.

Furthermore, there are still five films from the non-competition program The Turkic World. It contains films from Kazakhstan, Bashkortostan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Türkiye.

Bashkortostani filmmakers Aidar Akmanov, Aisyuak Iumagulov, Vitali Dudka, Ainur Askarov, Ruslan Iultaev, and Airat Abushakhmanov will present their film named Summer. City. Love. There are eight stories twisting into a mosaic of feelings in which every character discovers what love is in his own way. For some it is passion, for the others – pain – but all of them are united by finding themselves and the desire to be happy.

Peculiar to the Uzbek nation, highly human qualities like mercy, unity, and readiness to support each other in tough and happy days are expressed in Abdukhalil Minyarov’s film My Makhalla.

In the Kazakhstani film Kyzym by Olzhas Nurbai, a 60-year-old Erzhan ends up in the hospital again. His three daughters try to settle him down to married life, but a sequence of unpredictable dates with different candidates reveals family secrets.

Composer by Turkmenistani filmmaker Maksat Klychev is also about family. Since early childhood, Merdan has been keen on music and developed his talent under the supervision of his curators. But the main source of inspiration for him was his mother. But when Merdan’s mother passes, his world gets turned upside down, and he unexpectedly loses his compositional skills.

And the characters of the Turkish film Eliza by Sinan Sertel find themselves trapped in a cave with virtually no hope of rescue and are forced to fight for survival. As events unfold, their world is shaken by upheavals against the background of which images and motifs drawn from mythology and religion constantly appear.

Non-competitive films from the Tukic World program of the XXII Kazan International Altyn Minbar Film Festival will be screened at Mir Cinema.

The schedule of screenings is available on the official website: https://kazan-mfmk.com/schedule/