Aralkum, 2022
Director: Mila Zhluktenko & Daniel Asadi Faezi

Logline

Aralkum is a cinematic kaleidoscope of a desert landscape that used to be a lake. The surreal flickering of the Aral desert transforms into the waves of the former Aral Sea. The sand becomes water. An old man becomes a fisherman again.

Synopsis

A desert landscape, as if from another planet. A few lonely, rusty shipwrecks. Low desert scrub grows around them to hold the sand together during the merciless storms. Aralkum, the Aral Desert, is the bare seabed, the last thing left of the Aral Sea.

By weaving together different cinematic textures, the short film Aralkum re-imagines the dried-up Aral Sea, allowing an old fisherman to set sail one last time.