BWFF: Jamilia

(2018) dir Aminatou Echard [84 min; DCP]

JAMILIA, the debut documentary feature from French director Aminatou Echard, begins with a woman’s voice describing the self-confident and strong-willed Jamilia. She is the protagonist of Chingiz Aitmatov’s eponymous Soviet-era novel. In the novel, Jamilia breaks with tradition and leaves her arranged marriage to elope with her great love. Echard uses the heroine as a jumping-off point to enable women in Kyrgyzstan to tell their own stories. It quickly becomes clear that, for these women, Jamilia represents the possibilities of self-determination. No longer simply a character, Jamilia has become a symbol for personal conflicts, longing, and desire for contemporary Kyrgyz women.

Shot is stunning, beautiful Super-8, with separately recorded audio, Echard’s film juxtaposes the gorgeously composed visuals of day-to-day life with the powerful voices of the women of Kyrgyzstan. At once connecting literature, reality, past and the present, Echard’s film is a testament to the importance of women's stories. 

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