Beshkempir: The Adopted Son

Aktan Abdykalykov was born in 1957 in the village of Kountouou in the region of Sakoulou in Kirghizstan. He worked as an art director on the feature “Où est ta maison l’escargot” (1991-1992) (114 mn) (Studio Kepetchek), which won the Jury Prize at the International Film Festival of Achkhabad (Turkmenistan) and was selected by the XVIIIth International Film Festival in Moscow (Russia). He was also the art director on short films such as “Beket” (1995) and “Beck-Terek”, which were selected at the Film Festival of Augsburg, the World Conference of Social Television Programmes in Guadalajara, the 10th Pärnu Film Festival (Estonia) and the Hamburg Film Festival. He directed many short films and video clips and the film “La Balançoire” (1991-1992), which won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland). “Le Fils Adoptif” gained him international recognition. “The Monkey” is his second feature film. —diplomatie.gouv.fr