SYNOPSIS
A train departing from the Kyrgyz mountains initiates an inner voyage, composed with the patient rhythm of a fable but described in a voice so haunted it must be the truth. A panoramic, black and white evocation of the Central Asian steppe is supported by an allusive first-person narrator who gradually discloses an unrecognized tragedy of cultural disintegration. Base camps, wild horses, another world outside the window and a phantom within: the sparse landscape reluctantly surrenders the sensations of a man forced from his home and a nation split from its soul.
Watch the film
The Taste of Koumiz (Le Goût du koumiz) is available to watch on Derives.tv.
Watch on Derives.tv →
Prizes
Prix Scam – Best Belgian audiovisual documentary, 2004
Cineform Award – Film Festival Seoul, South Korea
Special mention – Festival Filmer à tout prix, Brussels, Belgium
Diploma of honour – Krakow Film Festival, Poland
Broadcast on the Belgian national TV channel RTBF
Technical data
- Director
- Xavier Christiaens with Sandrine Blaise
- Script
- Xavier Christiaens
- Photography
- Xavier Christiaens
- Editing
- Xavier Christiaens
- Sound
- Sandrine Blaise
- Narrator
- Oleg Tsoy
- Mixing
- Mathieu Delvaux
- Music & songs
- Xavier Christiaens
- Technical assistance
- Michel Dutry
- Russian translation
- Alexandra Leurquin
- English translation
- Jo-Anne Velin
- Production
- Atouda (Belgium), Sandrine Blaise and Erick Lignon © Ostrov
- Coproduction
- Wallonie image production (Belgium), Christine Pireaux