Kazakh director Darezhan Omirbayev’s cinematographic masterpiece “Poet” (Akyn) has received the Best Film Award at the Lisbon and Sintra Film Festival 2022 (LEFFEST’22), held from November 10–20 in Portugal, QazMonitor reports citing Kazakh Cinema.
LEFFEST is an annual film festival, which takes place in two Portuguese cities, Lisbon and Sintra, and reviews the best films from Europe, Asia, South and North America. This year, the festival jury was chaired by the famous French director Olivier Assayas, and the guest list featured American actor John Malkovich and Canadian director David Cronenberg.
Omirbayev, along with producer Yulia Kim, attended the November 11 premiere of the film and participated in the festival events. Before departing for Lisbon, the director attended Kazakh cinema week festival in France, where he was awarded for his contribution to the development of co-productions between Kazakhstan and France.
The director’s works also have been published in a book by the Vienna International Film Festival, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this October. According to Yulia Kim, this is the first book about a Kazakh filmmaker to have ever been published abroad.
The world premiere of “Poet” took place in 2021 at the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan, where the film was awarded "Best Director". It was also named “Best Film” at the Olhar de Cinema International Film Festival in Brazil.
“Poet” is a poignant reminder of the passage of time. It revolves around the anxieties of musician Yerdos Kanayev’s character, Didar, whose greatest fear is being unable to catch up to the present age of technology.
The film will be shown at the Belgrade Film Festival in Serbia next week.