Beshkempir, my son!

School continues to frustrate, so I thought I would write about something more uplifting.

I went to Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive to watch a Kyrgyk movie about a boy who's sense of identity is tested when he learns that he is adopted. Besides presenting beautifully mischievous scenes of adolescent boys causing minor mayhem in their rural village, the film gently unfolds a boy's passage from childhood into adulthood. The lingering scenes of country life are sweet without being sacchrine and honest without being didactic. There are moments when showing tells so much more than dialogue ever can.

And there is always the strangeness, for me, of observing the faces of Central Asian people and trying to fit their features into my conception of Asians. Sometimes I imagine that they must be Chinese, but then they'll begin speaking something that sounds to me like Korean. The main character, Beshkempir, also looks like a Chinese boy from my fifth grade class.

Another great movie from the steppes is The Story of the Weeping Camel. Beautiful landscapes and adorable children in padded jackets.