On A Clear Day You Can See The Revolution From Here
Synopsis
The film brings into focus Kazakhstan’s search for a post-Soviet identity and a state-sponsored programme of cultural production that on the one hand connects back to the ancient folklore and belief systems of the Silk Road, while on the other, seeks to embrace the values of Western capitalism. Adopting an experimental documentary form, On A Clear Day provides a meditative faux observational film about the continual process of construction involved in nationhood and national identity.
Shot on 16mm, the camera is drawn across the terrain of Eastern Kazakhstan through a series of encounters that offer a translation of a reality within the challenging social and political context of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh steppe creates a rhythm for the film as the vast terrain forms the conditions for each encounter with locations including the Bogatyr open quarry, Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, Ekibastuz generating station and the newly constructed city of Nur-Sultan.
De-literalised through the use of constructed as well as un-orchestrated scenes; the film attempts to apprehend truths. Its facts, however, are always based on fictions - the ancient myths and folklore of Kazakhstan itself.
Details
- Year
- 2020
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 65 min
- Format
- 16mm
- Director
-
Emma Charles, Ben Evans James 1st Feature
- Producer
- Duman Nursila
- Executive Producer
- Pat Wintersgill
- Editor
- Emma Charles, Ben Evans James
- Screenwriter
- Nora O Murchú
- Sound
- Matt Baird, Michal Maletz, Elliott Bowell, Simon Goff
- Composer
- Simon Goff
- Colour
- Natalia Jaegar
Genre
Production Status
Production Company
Ben Evans James
Sales Company
Ben Evans James
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Folk to Folk
Director: Saoirse Crean
Year: 2026
Led by renowned vocal coach Jennifer John, Folk to Folk follows a group of women in Liverpool who use traditional folk songs to build unexpected connections across cultures. As they learn and sing in Gaelic, Romansh, Boro and other languages, the sessions uncover shared themes that unite us. The songs rise like ghosts from the past, stirring memories, laughter and tears, and opening a safe space for the women to reflect together. “This project proves that music is a universal language. It allows us to feel, to be emotional, and when we do that together… that’s where the power lies” - Jennifer John
Mystis
Director: Tatiana Collet Apraxine
Year: 2028
You awaken on a fog-shrouded shoreline and meet Echo, a strange child with a hole in their stomach. Together you cross a lantern festival where the veil between worlds is thinnest, sail into an ocean that opens beneath you, and descend through a portal into the Underworld. The Underworld moves through different facets of grief: a rave where silhouettes dance in slow motion, indifferent to Echo's attempts to reach them; a frozen sea where giant statues crack open to release a buried memory of a lost mother; a shadow theatre where an anger monster is unleashed, reducing everything to embers. From the embers, a boat carries you into a vast darkness, where Mother appears, and they are finally reunited. You sail together to the Tree of Life, a bioluminescent, cosmic jungle. Echo begs her to return to the World of the Living, but ancestors appear and surround you. She cannot come back - the journey was never about bringing her back. Echo, revealed to be your own child self, dissolves around you as the hole fills with light.
The Local
Director: Kim Hopkins
Year:
In an inner-city pub in Northern England, the lives of its regulars unfold through politics, love, loss and song, as a community holds on with quiet dignity in a world growing more divided and uncertain.