LITTLE BROTHER

“Fetch your father!” – “He’s away on business.” – “Then fetch your brother!” – “He’s studying in the city.”—“And your mother?” – “She’s dead.” This short exchange between Yerkin and his headmaster sums up the nine-year-old boy’s situation: he needs to look out for himself, because nobody else will. The stoicism with which he negotiates day-to-day life in provincial Kazakhstan is remarkable. In the morning he goes to school, in the afternoon he sells his home-made bricks. He wants to earn a lot of cash for the homecoming of Aidos, his beloved big brother, when it will be time to slaughter the sheep in the pen and invite all the neighbours. When finally the long-awaited Aidos returns, Yerkin has a brief chance just to be what he is – a little boy who enjoys scrapping with his brother. Together they visit their mother’s grave, go to the cinema. Soon, however, Aidos gets interested in other things – and unearths a family secret. Seric Aprymov’s tale of a young expert in the art of survival was made with non-professional actors against the picturesque backdrop of a village in the Kazakh steppe. In addition to wonderful images his film offers surrealistic interludes along with several allusions to Truffaut and Leone.

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SERIC APRYMOV
Born 1960 in Aksuat, Kazakhstan.
Since graduating from VGIK Moscow in 1989, he has worked as a director and screenwriter in Kazakhstan and Russia. His first short film DVOE ECHALI NA MOTOCIKLE / TWO WERE RIDING A MOTOR CYCLE and the subsequent features POSLEDNYAYA OSTANOVKA / THE LAST STOP, AKSUAT and TRI BRATA / THREE BROTHERS received national and international awards. In 2003 the Kazakh prize “Altyn Adam” went to Seric Aprymov as filmmaker of the year.

FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTION)
1986 / DVOE ECHALI NA MOTOCIKLE / TWO WERE RIDING A MOTOR CYCLE (short)
1989 / POSLEDNYAYA OSTANOVKA / THE LAST STOP
1998 / AKSUAT / AKSUAT
2000 / TRI BRATA / THREE BROTHERS
2004 / OCHOTNIK / THE HUNTER
2013 / BAUYR / LITTLE BROTHER