KOREA FOUNDATION

Director: Yerlan Nurmukhambetov, Lisa Takeba
Stars: Samal Yeslyamova, Mirai Moriyama

Set in a Kazakh village in the early 2000s, The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time portrays a family’s ordeal from the standpoint of a boy named Olzhas. His father, Ondasyn, goes to a livestock market to sell horses, but he is murdered by horse thieves on his way back home. After the funeral, the villagers blame his widow, Aigal, for his death, leading her to return to her own family with the help of her first husband Kairat, Olzhas’ biological father. On the journey, her car breaks down, and, while seeking help in an unfamiliar place, Olzhas meets a man wearing his dead father’s watch, triggering his family pursuit of the horse thieves.

The film garnered a lot of attention when it was selected as the opening film of the 24th Busan International Film Festival in 2019. Hailed for its cinematic beauty and the actors’ controlled expressions of emotions, the film does not offer dramatic twists or an intense climax, but presents the vast plain and enthralling nature of Kazakhstan through its lyrical harmony. It also provides a rare glimpse into the ordinary routine of the rural village and the local funeral culture. The KF tentatively plans to screen this film in September or sometime in the latter half of this year during its Central Asia Film Week. We hope film lovers in and outside Korea will enjoy this wonderful work.

Written by Kim Seong-in, KF Executive Vice President

Next month’s “KF Culture Walk” will be written by KF Chief Auditor Moon Sung-ki.

[Previous Articles]

ㆍJune 2020:Loonshots, recommended by KF Executive Vice President Kang Young-pil

ㆍMay 2020:Rise of the Robots, recommended by KF President Lee Geun

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