Tengri - Blue Heavens
Filmfest 2008

Temür, a thirty-year-old Kazakh, has given up hope of ever earning a living as a fisherman on the Aral Sea. The dried out lake has shrunk to 10% of its size and turned into a salty brine that no fish can live in. So he returns to his native village in the Kyrghyz Mountains, Ail. It is spring and Temür is full of hope for a fresh start. But life in the village of his youth is not what he expected it to be: There are no men of his age left in the village, and the older ones are turning to a more fundamentalist version of Islam. Then Temür meets a young Kyrgyz girl, Amira, who is lonely and waiting for the return of her mujahideen husband, who has gone off to fight. Temür starts spending time with Amira and her brother-in-law Taib. When Temür and Amira fall in love with each other, their only recourse is to run away... A love story set in the heart of Central Asia.