Directed by: Sharipa Urazbayeva
Runtime: 75 minutes
Country: Kazakhstan, Germany
Language: Kazakh with English subtitles
Rating: PG (Scene of Intimacy)

In a remote village on the Kazakh Steppe, timid Mariam cares for her husband and young children. Winter has arrived. With neither electricity nor easy access to water, every day is a struggle for survival. Then, Mariam’s husband suddenly disappears and the family finds itself in dire straits. Since his body cannot be found, the state refuses to declare him deceased, barring the family from financial support. Mariam is thus forced to redefine her position as wife, mother, and woman, in order not to let her husband’s fate determine her children’s or her own. Based on lead actress Meruert Sabbusinova’s life, Mariam is an intensely personal, hermeneutical rendering of a woman’s singular experience of a world that most can only imagine.

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Mariam will be available for rent via Vimeo On Demand at USD$3.50 from 19 June to 16 July 2020. Please click on the “Book Now” button which will redirect you to Vimeo. Upon purchase, the film will be available to you for 48 hours. 

Due to the closure of cinemas following the COVID-19 pandemic, Whose House Is This? : New Cinema of Central Asia is the first programme from the Asian Film Archive that will be presented entirely online, as part of the newly-launched series “Rewired”. 

* The programme line-up is correct at the time of publishing. Any changes will be updated and reflected.
* All prices are in US Dollars.
* Films are region-restricted and limited to Singapore and/or Southeast Asia depending on the film.