This Is What I Remember is a new film by acclaimed Kyrgyz film director Aktan Arym Kubat, many of whose previous films have been premiered in Cannes, Locarno and Berlinale.
The film is an international co-production between Kyrgyzstan, Japan, and France, supported by Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund, and relates the tragic story of a man named Zarlyk who loses his memory whilst working as a migrant and disappears for 20 years. Eventually he is found and his son brings him back to his native village, where much has changed during his absence, both in society and within his family. However, nothing bothers Zarlyk as he has been consumed by an inexplicable passion for collecting garbage.
Premiering at the October Tokyo International Film Festival competition, the film received the Grand Jury prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards last month. The director, also known as Aktan Abdykalykov, is known for award-winning features such as The Adopted Son, which won the Locarno Silver Leopard in 1998, and The Light Thief, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2010. His previous film, Centaur, played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section in 2017 and won the CICAE Award.
Arym Kubat describes his film as being about human folly. The protagonist is a metaphor for the tragedy of human nature. He is like litmus paper, an indicator of morality: the unbridled emotions of a young family, pride, abuse against women, hatred between people, Islamic radicalization, corruption, polluted air and environmental debris. Yet, in this dramatic story of morality, love is still portrayed as the fragile hope of regaining sense.
The opening shots depict actual tree roots, setting the background for the film regarding the loss of roots, cultural, moral, and personal. The cinematography highlights the stunning landscapes of Kyrgyzstan, always present in the films of Arym Kubat, who also plays the lead role of Zarlyk. The chemistry between himself and Taailakan Obozova (Umsunai) is compelling and touching: the son, played by Kubat’s real life son, Mirlan Abdykalykov, is extremely convincing, and the mother-in-law (Anar Nazarkulova), enforces law and moral order as fiercely as Cerberus, the three-headed hound of Hades.
Zarlyk is opposed to the notion of people living in a world of fog and haziness day by day, losing themselves in an unconsciously chosen religion, alcohol, or a loss of cultural heritage, blinded by power and material values. The small world of Zarlyk’s village reflects Kyrgyz society as a whole: the substitution of concepts, choosing something alien instead of organic and, as a result, choosing the wrong path, which ultimately will not bring happiness.