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By Viola Ke
Kazakhstani film “The Divorce,” directed by Daniyar Salamat, will be premiered worldwide during the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival and compete for top awards in the festival's main competition.
The movie is set in the mid-1920s during establishment of Soviet authority and collectivization in the Kazakh steppe. One of the popular slogans of the era was "Emancipation of the Woman of the East."
Members of Komsomol, the Communist Youth League, persuade the character Sarymsak to take the role of the wife of a mullah, an honorific title for Muslim clergy, in a stage play on the theme of freedom and equality for women. The script also called for a ban on polygamy.
After the performance, Sarymsak quarrels with his wife, Zlikha, who reproaches him for playing a woman and disgracing their family. He accidentally says "Talaq," which according to Muslim tradition means divorce.
According to veteran director Salamat, planning for the movie, which carries a significant sense of historical weight, took a decade.
"My intention was not to create a typical Kazakh film. The aim was to go beyond traditional narratives, capturing a period of over a hundred years ago when Kazakhstan was in a state of weakness due to external political influences," Salamat said.
"This upheaval affected the strongest members of society, justifying the existence and struggles of non-traditional male roles within this historical context," he added.