The just-concluded Ashgabat Spring Short Film Festival has discovered new talents. A film entitled ‘Meniň Kakam’ (‘My Father’) has won two awards: Best Actress and Jury’s Choice.

The script for the moving film was written by the Oguzkhan Türkmenfilm Association’s film director Arslan Eyeberdyev. In an interview he told the Golden Age correspondent how he had come up with the idea for the film about a young girl and her love for her father, and about the production process.

… The little girl is waiting for her father to come home after work. But she has fallen asleep before he returns, not being able to tell him about many things. After promising his daughter to come home earlier the next day, the father has to stay late at work again and fails to keep his promise. One day the naïve girl gives her pocket money back to her father saying: “I do need my dad!” This makes her father ponder on the situation seriously…

– The idea for the film came to me when I was at work, Arslan Eyeberdyev told. – My filmmaking career makes demands on my time. When I have a few spare minutes, I do my best to call home and ask how my wife and children are. Once, when I called, my daughter answered the phone and asked: “Will you come home late tonight again?” She sounded very upset on the phone. This is how the idea for the short film began to form in my mind. The film is based on an autobiographical story. 

As the director was busy working on another project, he only had time to write the script. Therefore, he entrusted Nuryagdy Shikhiev with the task of making the film. And Arslan’s fellow worker and director of the film ‘Durmuş Kyssalary’ (‘Life Stories’) began to bring the idea to life. Arslan Eyeberdyev’s daughter, six-year-old Enay, was invited to play the starring role in the film.

– We thought she would be a perfect fit for the role and could handle it like no one else, because she knows only too well what it is like waiting for her father from work. – We were just making the film and did not expect it to win. It took two days to shoot it, but the editing process was a little longer. I did not know who else was taking part in the festival since all the short films entered for the competition did not feature the makers’ names to ensure that the judging process is as fair as possible. 

‘My Father’ won the Festival’s Grand Prize. Nuryagdy Shikhiev received the Jury’s Choice Award. The Best Actress Award went to Enay Eyeberdyeva for her debut acting role.

– I am going to start working on a new film soon. Meanwhile, I would like to advise young emerging directors to have faith in their own capabilities, not to get discouraged when things do not go right, and to strive for success. And they will eventually succeed.

Svetlana CHIRTSOVA

Photo: Aleksey GIMALITDINOV