Recorded in Kyrgyzstan, artist filmmaker Aminatou Echard’s first feature length work searches for Jamilia, the eponymous heroine of Chingiz Aitmatov’s classic 1958 novel about a young woman who, having been abducted and forced to marry, fled with her lover. Fifty years after the book’s publishing, Echard travels to meet several generations of Kyrgyz women. The film that resulted from her research is a delicate and impressionistic Super 8 portrait of the country reflected through the prism of their stories, exploring a culture where the patriarchal system curbs their freedom to work, desire, love, live or dream, yet resistance remains.

Screens with
At Land | Maya Deren | 1944 | USA | 15’

“Maya Deren was one of the first experimental filmmakers whose work I encountered, and crucially, one of the first to make me consider the possibility of combining documentary, ethnographic field work, cinema and experimental film in my own work. And, of course, with all the sensuality of Deren that we can experience in her films. She is a great inspiration to me.” – Aminatou Echard on Maya Deren.

+ Q&A with director Aminatou Echard, hosted by Jo Duncombe(Lead Curator and Programme Producer – Birds Eye View). UK Premiere.

In partnership with Bird’s Eye View.

“As an artist who works with experimental film and documentary, Aminatou Echard's focus is on how space transforms people and how people inhabit spaces. She conveys this idea by exploring the relationship between sound and image. Fieldwork is a crucial element in her artistic practice.”