Remember Our Dance (2020) is the storytelling of falling and betrayal of love and friendship. Most of the film takes place in a studio in the centre of Paris.
The ex-deputy and ex-minister, Amir has escaped from one Central-Asian country to Paris. He has to spend one night here before going to London to his son who studies at a university there. In his country, he did some mistakes in front of his powerful bosses among high authorities. And he was forced to run out of the country immediately. On his arrival in Paris, he decides to call his old friend Serega who is living in his country. They have a long conversation all night, remembering good and bad, quarreling, complaining, sharing thoughts about the authority, corruption, human sins… and before they know it, the night has turned into morning.
79 mins I Russian I Drama I 2020 I Kazakhstan
In its persistent mission and zeal to promote good cinema, the Indian Film Institute brings you the experience of the Director of the film - Nariman Turebayev
Why this subject matter for your film?
This subject is important to me 'cause I often see, when a person makes small steps aside from morality, from his conscience day by day, then these steps turn into horrible things, and, eventually, all these 'mistakes' become pure evil destroying all his humaneness. Especially,
we can see that among authorities who lose most of their human qualities after getting huge power. All the evil you made in your life strikes back - this is the law for everyone, and to me also.
Where did you find the story for this film?
I began thinking about this idea when I heard the news that one of our local influencer, a rich man, escaped from the country after some pressure, and I thought - that's absolutely useless, you never can escape and hide from big power, and, first of all, you can't escape from yourself.
What were the challenges you faced in making the film?
The main challenge was absence of finance. All other problems, mainly technical, came from this. But, I understood that you can find co-workers everywhere - in Paris we found a good film professional who worked for free. Cinema is a big international field where you can find like-minded person in any place on the planet.
Did you face any problems in releasing the film?
I presented my film only in the week of French cinema in Kazakhstan and at Diorama. Unfortunately, I didn't have a plan of distribution - you cannot make just a film, you should think strongly about distribution before making your film, even if you make it with a small budget.
What was your background before making your first film?
Before my first long feature I graduated from Kazakh Academy of Arts, then my diploma short film 'Antiromantika' was selected for Cinefondation at Cannes film festival, after that I was a resident of Cannes film festival Residence in Paris where I found French producers for my first big film - Arte channel and Abderrahmanne Sissako.
How do you think filmmakers like you can overcome common challenges like finance and distribution?
To overcome challenges it's strongly needed to find a producer who really believes in you and can go with you through all obstacles. To be a filmmaker and a producer at the same time is a bad idea. Nowadays to make a film is rather easy, but - the smaller your budget, the smaller should be a location where you think to shoot.
Meet the Director - Nariman Turebayev
Nariman Turebayev is an alumnus of the Kazakh Academy of Arts. After making the short film Antiromantika (2001), he was selected for a 4 month stay in the Cinefondation Residence of the Cannes Festival in Paris. He is also a member of SACD (Author’s society, France). In 2018 selected for a 3 months stay in Cite Internationale des Arts residence in Paris, where he made a long feature film ‘Remember our dance’. He has been a professor of filmmaking in the Turan University, Kazakhstan since 2016.
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