Karabas is a man who has never really grown up. He is a difficult man: a hard-gambling, hard-drinking, child-in-a-man’s body who puts only himself first in his family He and his young pregnant wife just scrape by. When his first wife Zhipara arrives with the news that she’s found their long-lost son Uluk, a question arises: Could the fractured foursome all live together?
Soon the new family dynamics are stretched past their limits, and Karabas is caught between his old ways and the two women bearing his sons: one re-born and one yet to come. Now this unusual family must decide if they are to co-exist or tear each other apart as old wounds are ripped open and deception becomes the rule of the day. Some wounds are just too hard to heal – even if you believe in the magical power of Suleiman Mountain.
Shot on location in and around the mystic World Heritage Site of the Suleiman Mountain in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, film tells the coming of age story of a grown man who must first lose love in order to find it.
In her distinctive debut, Elizaveta Stishova dexterously combines a road movie with a family drama with elements of an original comedy. She organically incorporates traditional Kyrgyz customs, shamanic practices, and folklore motifs into the storyline, thereby painting a vivid portrait of life in this Central Asian country.