Film Dry is the first production cooperation between Serbia and Kyrgyzstan.
At the same time, it is the third film this year that he has produced Miloš Đukelić, and that it premiered at a world festival.
The disappearance of Josef Mengele premiered in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival, a horror film Karmadona in the program of the festival in Toronto, a Dry will have its world premiere at Asia's biggest festival, in Busan, South Korea, on September 21.
The film was directed by Kyrgyz Erka Dzhumakmatova.
About the women of Kyrgyzstan
It is based on true events, and through several stories that are intertwined, it deals with the theme of disenfranchised women in the patriarchal society of contemporary Kyrgyzstan.
The press material notes that the reality of modern Kyrgyzstan, despite the status of a 'secular state', is marked by violence, hypocrisy and widespread violation of the rights of women, who still remain the most socially unprotected part of the population. In the conditions of aggressive propaganda and patriarchal and radical religious ideology, the ideas of feminism in Kyrgyzstan are identified with the popularization of LGBTQ+ communities, they are openly criticized, and the judicial system in most cases sides with murderers and rapists.
"One of the main producers of this film, Katerina Tarbo-Ignatenko, lived in Belgrade for a while after the conflict broke out in Ukraine and Russia," says Miloš Đukelić.
When she proposed to him to collaborate on this film, he thought it incredible that this "exotic co-production would be possible".
"I almost had no idea where Kyrgyzstan was, but it was intriguing to learn more about the people who live there and how they live. The director of the film, Erke, was also very persuasive. She explained to me why it was important to make such a film, and she explained to me the nuances and contrasts of that Asian society. We looked for partners for several years, visiting film markets and festivals like Cannes and Berlin, and applying to competitions."
In the middle of a cold winter
Đukelić says that they filmed "in the middle of a cold winter in Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan, in the interesting but also harsh post-Soviet architecture of this Asian republic where Islam is the majority religion. Nothing was simple and ordinary, to the extent that the journalist on whose article one of the stories was based was arrested during the filming, and one of the co-directors suddenly died during the editing".
The film, he points out, is visually interesting, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Wong Kar Wai's films, with a fragmentary narrative. In addition to Kyrgyzstan and Serbia, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy are also included in the production, which speaks of the complexity and attractiveness of the project.
