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Songs from the Southern Seas

Pesn' yuzhnih morei

KAZAKHSTAN, GERMANY, RUSSIA, FRANCE 2008. 35 mm. Color. 82’

Ivan is Russian and his neighbour Assan is Kazakh. They live side by side in a village in Kazakhstan. When Ivan’s wife becomes pregnant and gives birth to a brown baby, Ivan begins to suspect that she has been unfaithful to him. However, six months later Assan’s wife gives birth to a little ginger baby.
The question then becomes who has betrayed whom, sparking a conflict that will last fifteen years. With Songs from the Southern Seas, the quest to come to terms with one’s ethnic identity becomes a search for happiness.


  • Director: Marat Sarulu
  • Producer: Karsten Stöter, Benny Drechsel, Sain Gabdullin, Yuri Obukhov, Guillaume de Seille
  • Screenwriter: Marat Sarulu
  • Director of Photography: Giorgi Beridze
  • Artistic Director: Erwin Prib, Sergej Bulavinc
  • Editor: Karl Riedl
  • Sound: Jörg Theil
  • Music: Andrey Sigle
  • Cast: Vladimir Yavorsky (Ivan), Dzhaidarbek Kunguzhinov (Assan), Irina Agejkina (Maria), Ajzhan Ajtenova (Aisha)
  • Language and Subtitles: Russian & Kazakh Dialect with English & Spanish subtitles

Marat Sarulu

Marat Sarulu was born in Talas, Kyrgyzistan, in 1957. After receiving a degree in philology from the University of Bishkek in 1980, he studied film at VGIK in Moscow, where he remained until 1984. He wrote screenplays until he was able to make his first feature-length film, in 1993: In Spe. His second film, “My Brother Silk Road” won the Golden Montgolfière at the 2002 Festival des 3 Continents. Songs from the Southern Seas is his third film.

Filmography

Molenie o Prechistoj ptitse (Praying for the Virgin Bird, cortometraje_short), 1989; In Spe, 1993; Mandala (cortometraje_short), 1998; Ergy (The Fly Up, cortometraje_short), 2001; Altyn Kyrghol (My Brother Silk Road), 2001; Burnaja reka, bezmiateznoje more (The Rough River, the Placid Sea), 2004; Pesn' yuzhnih morei (Song from the Southern Seas), 2008.