The Road to Mother
2015
A Kazakh historical epic follows a man's decades-long search for the mother he was separated from as a child during the Soviet Union's forced collectivization of nomadic families.
Cast
Adil Akhmetov, Altynai Nogherbek
Director Akan Satayev's historical epic spans much of Kazakhstan's twentieth century through the eyes of Ilyas, separated from his mother Mariam as a child when Soviet collectivization tore apart the nomadic families of the region. What follows is his lifelong search to find his way back to her — through World War II, through decades, through a nation still defining itself against its Soviet past.
Shot in widescreen with a distinct color palette for each era it depicts, The Road to Mother was commissioned by Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture and submitted as the country's contender for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2017.