Koktemnin birinshi zhanbyry

This feature film début is set in the remote Tien Shan mountain chain. There, in a modest house far from the city, live a herdsman's family: Kinusche, the head of the family, his wife Danaguri, oldest son Askhat, daughter Aigul, little Alisher and the Shaman Dergeley. Shortly before the onset of spring Dergeley announces that she will pass away the following day, to at some point return as the wife of Askhat. She requests that her parents take her to the sacred mountains by the Kush and bury her there in accordance with traditional ceremony. The following day Kinusche and Danaguri undertake the arduous journey in order to fulfil Dergeley's final wish. In the meantime a series of unusual incidents occur in the otherwise uneventful everyday lives of the children... a film produced in line with the practice of contemporary Kazakh film. One element of this genre is particularly noteworthy: despite Kazakhstan belonging to the Islamic world, we observe a growing interest in the country's pre-Islamic history and the Shamanistic traditions that formed a constituent part thereof, in particular the belief in the elemental force of nature and reincarnation, as graphically illustrated by E. Tursunov's KELIN (2008, Cottbus 2008). The directors of FIRST RAINS OF SPRING offer a convincing, poetic and true-to-life portrayal of the everyday existence of a herdsman's family surrounded by an at once fascinating and forlorn landscape.