The Adopted Son

In a remote Kyrgyz village a foundling infant is taken in by five old women. A couple unable to have children of their own then adopt him. So Beshkempir grows up in the village. The film finds him again at the start of adolescence. His interest in girls, his quarrels with his friends and their making up are all inside the account. A death in the family falls in the same period. But the real matter is something else: the boy questions his own place and thinks about what being adopted means. The account leaves the daily life of the village as it is. The eighty one minutes are spread over several months. Aktan Arym Kubat’s film, a joint French and Kyrgyz production, was completed in 1999.