The Gift

The film «Belek» is based on real events and immerses the viewer in the heartbreaking story of a Kyrgyz family facing harsh traditions and internal contradictions. The story centres on a family consisting of a mother, father, grandfather and five daughters expecting a sixth child. The mother, Uultu, longs to give her husband a son, but each of her daughters feels the burden of her name, which reflects the parents' personal expectations but also becomes a symbol of personal failures and disappointments.

The girls' names are created with obvious irony and grotesqueness, emphasising their alienation from their parents. The eldest is Sandajok («out of count»), the second is Uularno («dedication to the son»), the third is Janyl («make a mistake»), the fourth is Adash («get lost»), and the fifth is Burul («turn around»). Each name is a symbol of the parents' aspirations, but also of their failures, for they are all in one way or another connected with disappointment and the insatiable desire for a male heir.

One of the daughters, Arno dresses and acts like a boy to gain her father's favour and love. The mother, Uultu, meanwhile continues to do all the household chores, caring for the children and following the instructions of her husband, who believes that a change in the air can change the sex of the future child, thus travelling to remote Jailau in the last stages of pregnancy. «Belek», has several meanings - it symbolises good luck and prosperity, and is also seen as the name of a boy who is considered a gift of fate. However, for the daughters of the family, this word becomes a symbol of the impossibility of fulfilment of what they want, because for them «Belek» will never be a reality.

The film «Belek» is not only a story about the struggle against traditional expectations and rigid roles in the family, but also a tragic irony of how it becomes impossible for a woman and daughter in such a context to achieve harmony and a sense of self, being not what others want them to be.