Harmony lessons - s3.amazonaws.com · Harmony lessons a film by Emir baigazin graphic design: Jcs KazaKhfilm n.a. shaKen aimanov presents a Kaza Kh-german-french co-production of

Harmonylessons a film by Emir baigazin

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Jcs KazaKhfilm n.a. shaKen aimanov presents a KazaKh-german-french co-production of Jcs KazaKhfilm The posT republic halle rohfilm arizona producTions with the support of The berlinale World cinema fund aide aux cinÉmas du monde WorK in progress aWard saraJevo film fesTival

with Timur aidarbeKov aslan anarbayev muKhTar andassov anelya adilbeKova beibiTzhan muslimov casting adeliya ToguzaKova lyudmila veliTchenKo costume designer ulan nugumanov sound marKus Krohn sergey lobanov production designer yuliya leviTsKaya editor emir baigazin

director of photography aziz zhambaKiyev co-producers rebeKKa garrido michael reuTer KarsTen sTÖTer benny drechsel guillaume de seille produced by anna KaTchKo written and directed by emir baigazin international sales films disTribuTon

© 2013 Jcs KazaKhfilm, The posT republic halle, rohfilm, arizona prod.

Harmonylessons a film by Emir baigazin

JCs Kazakhfilm n.a. shaken aimanov presents

Kazakhstan / Germany / France - 2013 – Color - 110 min.

WorlD salesFIlms DIsTrIBUTIon34-36, rue du louvre75001 ParisT : +33 1 53 10 33 [email protected]

InTernaTIonal PressrenDeZ-VoUsViviana andriani & aurélie Dard2 rue Turgot 75009 ParisT : +33 1 42 66 36 35m : +33 6 80 16 81 [email protected]

Download stills & press kit : www.rv-press.com

Aslan, a 13-year-old boy living with his grandma, is a student in a high crime rate village school in Kazakhstan.Corruption and violence conflict drastically with his obsession for perfectionism.Aslan sees all the evil in the school gang leader Bolat, who humiliates him in front of all his class-mates and extorts money from all the kids, bea-ting them up severely.Out of good motives to rid his school of crime, Aslan decides to take action against Bolat...

synopsis

Through this film, I tried to look straight into the eyes of my character and his human house, rather those that live in his head.

Like any human being, Aslan is a hero and a victim at the same time in different scales and in different times.In the film, I did not show the act of the murder, but I shown a life-like killing of a sheep in the opening of the film. The essential idea is that all the murders are com-mitted for the same purpose, the incentive to survive.

This story could take place in a Russian village as well as in Brazilian slums. The common denominator is the low economic development of a region.

All the leading actors in the film are not professional actors but school kids. They were found through a massive casting all over Kazakhstan and each one of them has done, I believe, a great job. The leading character Aslan, who is played by the orphan Timur Aidarbekov, lived in a children’s house in Almaty. Through the film, the boy has lived a true transformation. We have managed to take him out of the orphanage after the end of the shooting.

Emir Baigazin

DirECTor’s noTEs

This film is made by a director issuing of a whole new generation of very young Kazakhstani filmakers who are interested in treating the topics which preoccupy them the most: inner struggle, violence, power system.

It is an amazing opportunity that Harmony Lessons got it’s initial financing by a State company JCS Kazakhfilm as a winner of the countrywide competition Spotlight: New Kazakh Cinema organized at the International Eurasia Film Festival. It was crucial for the project to get international support and cooperation. We took this challenge and now Harmony Lessons is the first official co-production between Kazakhstan and Europe in the last years.

Anna Katchko

proDUCTion’s noTEs

Born in 1984 in Kazakhstan. He graduated in 2009 from the Kazakh National Academy of Arts. In 2007, he won the Asian competition with his project STEPPE and was se-lected to hands-on training at the Asian Film Academy du-ring the PuSAN INTERNATIONAL FILm FESTIvAL, South Korea. His teachers were Pen ek Ratanaruang (Thailand) and mohsen makhmalbaf (Iran)In February 2008 Emir Baigazin participated at the BERLI-NALE TALENT CAmPuS.

The project HARmONY LESSONS is his debut feature. The film project participated at LOCARNO OPEN DOORS 2011, and won Spotlight: New Kazakh Cinema – the first all Kazakhstani national film project competition during EuRASIA FILm FES-TIvAL in September 2011. In Summer 2012, HARmONY LESSONS was awarded with the BERLINALE WORLD CINEmA FuND. The film has also won the main price at the Work-in-Progress Section of the SARAJEvO INTERNATIONAL FILm FESTIvAL and was awarded with the postproduction in-kind support by the German Company Post Republic Halle. Harmony Lessons has also received support from Aide aux Cinémas du monde (CNC, ministère des affaires Étrangères, Institut français)

Emir baigazin - DIRECTOR anna KaTChKo - PRODuCER

FILmOGRAPHY

2009 JEAN’S VIDEO DIARY (28 min) / screenwriter, director Winner of the 2009 Zhastar Award in the Best Debut nomination.

2008 FATSHEDDER (20 min.) / screenwriter, director, Grand prix of the 2008 Didar Kazakhstani Students Film Festival in Almaty Special Prize of the 2008 Stars of Shaken Film Festival in Almaty (Kazakhstan) Special Prize of the MIFF International Youth Jury and Eurasia 2008, Astana (Kazakhstan) Participant of the international competition program of the 28th VGIK IFF in Moscow (Russia)

2007 STEPPE (2 min.) / screenwriter, director, cameraman Selected at the Asian Film Academy, South Korea Selected at the Berlinale Talent Campus 2008

2007 VIRGINS / screenwriter, one of five directors, (Asian Film Academy)

2006 CHEERFUL AND OFFENDED / screenwriter, director, cameraman Best Director Award at the 2007 Didar Students Festival.

Born in moscow, Anna went to school in Germany, and graduated from the Faculty of Tv and Film at Sorbonne university, Paris. She then started production work in New York and completed a producer’s course at the New York Film Academy and EAvE (European Individual Entrepre-neurs) 2008.

Selected producer’s credits include: Russian-American drama PERESTROIKA (2009), Russian-Swedish action NEWSmAKERS (2009), German-Russian-Kazakh BAIKO-

NuR (2011), Kazakh historical epic drama mYN BALA (2012), Russian-Irish mOS-COW NEvER SLEEPS (2013).

Anna is one of the founders of moscow Business Square, the yearly Film Business Platform at mOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILm FESTIvAL and the director of Spot-light: New Kazakh Cinema, co-production event at EuRASIA FILm FESTIvAL in Almaty. She is also EAvE Russian National coordinator.

Anna speaks fluent German, English, French and Russian. She resides between mos-cow, Almaty and Berlin.