Song from the Southern Seas

(Marat Sarulu, Kazakhstan, 2008)

Wednesday, November. 4, at 6 p.m., Drenan Auditorium, third floor, Parker Hall, and Friday, Nov. 6, at 10 a.m., Putnam Theatre, Redfern Arts Center.

Two couples, one Russian and one Kazakh, live side by side in relative harmony in a beautiful yet semi-desolate region of the Great Steppe. But when the fair-skinned Russians give birth to a boy of decidedly darker skin, 15 years of suspicion and acrimony arise between them, only to be resolved by an ironic twist of family and fate. At times darkly somber, at other times tender and wistful – and buoyed throughout by a soundtrack of folk-inspired melodies – writer/director Marat Sarulu draws on Kazakhstan’s epic history to create a gritty and deeply compassionate tale of humor and cultural insight.

Marat Sarulu was born in Talas, Soviet Union (now Kyrgyzstan) in 1957. He graduated with a degree in Philology from Kyrgyz National University in Bishkek in 1980 and subsequently studied at the Moscow Cinema Academy. He is co-writer of the internationally successful feature film, Beshkempir and currently works as a writer and director. Song from the Southern Seas is his third feature film.