DREAMISTAN

Like all fairytales, or almost all, there is a beautiful young girl. Her name is Aigul, and she has a voice that melts the hearts of the simple folk in the village where she lives. Her father modestly works the land and her mother doesn’t do much, while her grand-mother seems to spend her days sleeping. Aigul sees her own life in the city where she would become a singer, far from her Kazakh village. One day, she meets a young man with a moustache on a bike who suggests she follow him there to find fame. But she must talk her parents round and meet him on time. A whimsical musical and tale of country life, Dreamistan also deals with a situation played out in the lives of millions of young girls all over the world, whose dreams clash with their family’s wishes and traditions. As childhood draws to a close what does fate have in store for the lovely Aigul? A life she has ownership of, guided by her own choices, but what will she find? Dreamistan, the land of dreams? Or the simple reality of marriage, children, a plot of land, and the same life as her parents? By asking this question to non-professional actors in the middle of Kazakhstan, an isolated country at the confluence of traditional cultures, Benjamin Ilyasov anchors his timeless fable in the here and now. Behind a veil of warm colours, Dreamistan is a story of intimacy, thereby making it completely universal. (VTA)