In September 2015, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of director Tolomush Okee, who created one of the iconic films of Kyrgyz cinema, "The Sky of Our Childhood."
The film was awarded the Grand Prize "Big Mountain Crystal," a diploma for Best Cinematography at the All-Union Film Festival of Central Asia and Kazakhstan (1967), and recognized as the Best Debut at the III All-Union Film Festival in Leningrad (1968). The film won the "Golden Alpine Branch" at the international festival in Trieste (1969). The International Film Festival in Frankfurt am Main (1968) honored the director's work with an honorary diploma.
"A highway must pass through the pasture of Bakai. Progress has disturbed the eternal peace of the mountains, and the old herdsman Bakai has to say goodbye forever to his old pasture, to the mountains, to nature," says photographer Alexander Fedorov.
He noted that the film was shot by the best cinematographer of the Soviet Union, Kadyrzhan Kydyraliev, with whom Tolomush later made several films.
"The film featured the color of Kyrgyz theatrical art — Muratbek Ryskulov, Aliman Zhangorozova, Sovetbek Jumadylov. And at this level, the performance of the ten-year-old schoolboy Nasret Dubashev seems even more convincing and professional," said Fedorov.
A contemporary of the director emphasized that the scene he finds most moving is the episode of Bakai's farewell to the pasture, which the shepherd considered eternal, just as his skill had been passed down from fathers to children since ancient times. And now, in the twilight of his years, new times have come. The children have left the nomadic life and moved to the city; even the youngest son does not want to be a shepherd.
"Bakai approaches the perch where an aged eagle was dozing. Removing the jesses from its legs, he strokes the bird on the head and says: 'You have aged too. Now you are free, goodbye.' With effort, he throws the heavy bird into the air, directing it to fly... Bakai does not look back, does not torment his soul with the sight of the ruined hearth and the even more pitiful sight of the once proud, now helplessly hopping eagle, clearly seeing in its fate his own," said the photographer.
In Okee's film, the poetry of everyday life, nomadic existence, and the human relationships that have developed over centuries is depicted with immense and impressive power, concluded Fedorov.
Source: Sputnik Kyrgyzstan
