A beautiful, autobiographical bildungsroman about first love, heartbreak, and an artist’s discovery of his destiny. Made with black and white film and only natural light, the director creates an impression of his childhood in this gem of Central Asian cinema. The film stars his own son, and draws on the bucolic Kyrgyz landscape in a piece that whilst culturally specific, seems universal. It is the first in Abdykalykov’s trilogy of films about his own life.