Beshkempir: The Adopted Son

Customer Reviews:

Interesting film, something of a curiosity.......2007-05-29

A minimalist film from Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian nation and former Soviet republic (there are several alternative spellings of the country). Shot in black and white, but with a few scenes in color, the film is set on a rural village and starts as a young baby boy is adopted by another family. The film cuts to several years later, when the boy is now a teenager. With other boys he is shown having the small adventures that boys in small towns have, stealing fruits from a neighbor, fighting, splashing in a mud pool, going with the rest of the village to an outdoor cinema (where an Indian film is shown, using an old projector). The central conflict of the movie starts when other boy, after losing against him the favor of one of the girls, tells him he is an adopted boy (which is apparently a cause for shame in the local culture). This small conflict will eventually reach a happy resolution, when his parents (which had hide to him his origins) tell him the truth. The movie is well done, in the tradition of the slow Soviet art movies, though it would be a stretch to call it a masterpiece. But because the country and its culture are little known outside the former Soviet Union, most of the viewers will see the film with the thrill of discovery, as a portrayal of a strange, unknown culture.

A cultural education, but weak on plot. .......2006-02-10

Not sure where Kyrgyztan is located, or what language this is, but the people have a mixture of Russian/Chinese look. The 1998 film draws heavily on the culture. It provides more education into the cultural aspect than what little the plot has to offer. Frankly, you cannot steep yourself into this plot.

A coming of age story, Beshkampir and his friends are typical young preteen boys, curious about sexuality, mischievous, and playful. Surprisingly, games the children play might bring back memories for some.

Five older ladies of the village adopt the baby then we shift 12 years later he learns that he is adopted. His grandmother dies and as a young man, he leads the traditional funeral. We are also witness to his interest in the female counterpart.

At the mercy of a translator for foreign films, at times, we sense we miss a true interpretation. In this film, the translation didn't quite fit the country. The young boys said, "oh how gross"; "quit bugging me", etc. It just didn't seem language that would come of of this Kyrgyztan village.

All in all, the movie was great on culture and not much else......MzRizz

unique view of Kyrgyz village life.......2004-08-01

This is the story of Beshkempir, a young boy growing up in the typical local manner, until his best friend, in a burst of anger, reveals that Beshkempir is adopted.

The plot is weak, but it is surprising not central to the movie. The film progresses with little dialogue, moving viewers through the days and weeks of typical village life. Most of the movie is in black and white, with occasional vibrant bursts of color. The relations between individuals, the land and animals are wonderfully conveyed, as is the typical life and cultural practices of Kyrgyz villagers. The movie is surprisingly frank, portraying issues such as early sexual exploration and spousal abuse with honesty.

Highly recommended for those planning to visit the area or interested in post-Soviet Central Asian culture.

Glimpse of an unfamiliar culture.......2002-07-20

This film succeeds because of the simple earthiness of the village where the story takes place. The plot itself is quite familiar, the typical coming of age. The fact that this boy has been adopted and doesn't realize it gives a twist here. One also emphasizes with the father who feels that he must be tougher than he would be even on a natural born son.

There's a natural poetry here. The pace is slow, quite slow, but not tiresome. It's shorter than the typical American feature movie, and so the pace doesn't hurt the movie.

It is in black and white, although with occasional and startling bursts of color. Hey, they don't make pictures like this here in America!

Old story, new storyteller........2002-04-26

The Esperanto of film narrative appears to be the (male) rites-of-passage. From Vigo to Truffaut to Yang, from China to Iran to Hollywood, the story of a young boy rising to man's estate is in danger of becoming tediously over-familiar. Although this is the first film produced by the former Soviet colony of Kyrgyzstan, there is nothing here to scare anyone who's seen 'Stand By Me' or 'George Washington' - a group of pubescent boys mess about one long, hot summer, splashing about in mud pools, staring rapt at bathing matriarchs, thieving, fighting, going to the cinema, struggling with parents and societal expectations, watching older boys beginning romances. Like a young Truffaut hero, the title character's attempts to fit in are fraught with obstacles, in particular the fact that he is a foundling orphan, which is crucially brought against him when he beats his best friend for the affections of an eternally-grinning young woman.

Yes, we've seen it a thousand times. What distinguishes a talented director from a hack is the fresh way he finds of enlivening stock material. Aktan Abdykalyakov is luckier than most, in that his country has never been represented on screen, so this strange new world has an inherent, novel fascination of its own. Abdykalyakov never allows the necessities of plot overwhelm his evocation of place, a rural village barely touched by modernisation. Clothing, bicycles, cinema are among the few reminders of the 20th century, as we watch formal ceremonies celebrating birth and death, concentrate on people silently working, beating carpets, creating mud bricks, breaking in horses, gutting fish. The soundtrack is never a mere backdrop, but has an intense ambient presence: the sounds of birds, insects, wind, trees, water, distant voices all creating a powerful character against which is offset the main narrative.

But this world would risk being mere exotic colour if it wasn't for Abdykalyakov's very real skill as a film-maker. He shoots his story mostly in monochrome, punctuated with odd shocks of colour, usually symbolic. This can have a startling, epiphanic effect, such as the hushed, black-and-white open-air audience watching a colour Bollywood musical; or the Paradjanov-miniature in which a brightly-coloured kingfisher hits against a darkly-framed window. Alternating static compositions with long sequence shots, Abdykalyakov achieves some extraordinary effects with light, whether it is a child playing with a mirror, or the otherworldly fade-outs accompanying threshold rituals. The most amazing sequence in the film sees a young boys' fight in a snaking river played out and spent as the sun dazzles the splashing of water; as the combatants lurk off the frame, the camera stays on the river and the increasingly prominent natural sound, in a Renoir-like tableau of quiet dignity.

Average customer rating:
Beshkempir: The Adopted Son ( Podkidysh )

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000246G8Y

Product Description

In the mountainous hinterlands of Kirigizstan, the remote former Soviet republic, childless couples don't have to fly to China or spend a fortune to adopt a kid. According to ancient Kirgiz custom, parents with large families are bound by duty to offer a baby boy (girls are considered undesirable) to any infertile couple. Beshkempir, the first-ever Kyrgyz indie, uses the above tradition as a launching pad for a sweet coming-of-age tale about an preadolescent boy (Mirlan Abdykalykov, the director's son) who finds out one day that he is adopted, and suffers the taunts of his cruel buddies. Director Aktan Abdykalykov's first feature is a fastidious visual picnic, shot mostly in black-and-white and overflowing with mesmerizingly simple rural images. At its core, however, Beshkempir is about kid culture, much like Lasse Hallstrom's My Life as a Dog or Emir Kusturica's When Father Was Away on Business, as a posse of boys idle away the spring by splashing in the mud, stealing eggs, fishing, and spying on elder village women. It's all rather sparse and simple, yet captivating in the way simplicity sometimes is.

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