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Asian Movie Night

6 November

Asian Movie Night is hosting an evening at Plaatsmaken featuring four short films, curated by Malika Mukhamejan. The program will be complemented by the cinematic performance "Lady of Heaven" by Darya Andijan and a reflective drawing workshop.

Tremors Beneath the Surface: Women's Voices from Central Asia is the title of the annual program of Asian Movie Night. A program that brings together feature films, short films, and experimental works from Central Asia and its diasporas, sketching a layered portrait of women’s lives. The films are not connected by a single storyline, but by the vibrations beneath them: silence that transcends generations, memories that interrupt the present, endurance woven into the textures of the everyday.

On November 6, Asian Movie Night and the QYZQARAS Film Festival present at Plaatsmaken:
Short Programme Part II — Echoes and Traces: Experimental Cartographies of Love, Loss, and Memory.

In this section, film language itself becomes a site of resistance. Diaries, myths, landscapes, and absences take the place of linear narratives, allowing the unspoken and unseen to emerge. Queer intimacy persists despite silence and distance; maternal history returns through myths; a threatened lake speaks through poetry; and the textures of a single day transform into a meditation on healing. Together, these films create alternative cartographies of identity and survival — fragments and traces that resonate where words fall short.

The following four short films will be screened:

1. Kündelık.Almaty / Aiganym Mukhamejan / Kazakhstan / 2024 / 11’
Kündelık.Almaty begins with Aiganym Mukhamejan’s spontaneous decision to film her day in Almaty, Kazakhstan. With camera in hand, she captures her personal encounters and the vibrant energy of her surroundings. The result is a cinematic diary: moments of reflection along the river, lively scenes at local bazaars, and a meaningful visit to a healer. Through her lens, we see a day of discovery and personal growth — an intimate portrait reflecting both the city’s heartbeat and her inner world.

2. Voiceless / Saadat Sataeva / Kyrgyzstan / 2025 / 15’
Voiceless is an essay film about a long-distance relationship between two young women — one in Ukraine, the other in Kyrgyzstan. Their faces remain hidden. The camera turns to their everyday surroundings: quiet houses, passing landscapes, traces of their presence. Their bond unfolds through text messages and silent phone calls, where emotions are felt in pauses, glances, and what remains unspoken. The result is a tender meditation on queer love, separation, and silent forms of communication that endure despite distance and invisibility.

3. Lady of Heaven / Darya Andijan / Netherlands / 2024 / 9’
A journey through the heavens on a flying carpet with Darya Andijan and her grandmother, newly released from a concentration camp in Xinjiang, China. As they float, the carpet transforms into a tapestry of Sumerian myths, dreams, and fragmented memories, intertwining the past and present of maternal history in Turkestan.

4. Balqaş Jyry / Artcom / Kazakhstan / 2025 / 19’
In this video essay dedicated to Lake Balqaş, the artists of the Artcom collective use the form of epic poetry (zhyr) and the tradition of qazaqylyq to depict the deep bond between humans and nature — a bond fractured by colonialism, industrialization, and ecological violence. Their aim is to give the lake back its voice and power: its capacity for resistance, its right to restoration, and its future.

Performance by Darya Andijan: Lady of Heaven

Lady of Heaven is a 15-minute expanded cinema piece featuring a solo performance by artist Darya Andijan. In it, she attempts to hold a phone conversation with her imprisoned grandmother — both within and outside the film.

Drawing workshop

A hands-on workshop exploring the concept of Asianness through the lens of Asian cinema. Film is used as a catalyst to question and reshape cultural identity. Participants work with iconic scenes, objects, and moments from films, creating experimental visual responses — doodles, sketches, and compositions — that reflect their impressions and experiences. As part of the Asian Movie Night Seasonal Festival, participants are invited to reimagine the boundaries of Asiannessthrough color, texture, and form, turning fleeting film images into personal visual definitions of culture.

Programme

Thursday, November 6

18:30 Doors open
19:00 Introduction
19:05 – 20:10 Short Film Program Part II, Experimental Cartographies of Love, Loss, and Memory
20:10 – 20:25 Performance by Darya Andijan
20:25 – 21:00 Drawing Workshop Scene & Seen

Tickets

€4.00 (Student rate €2.00)
Reservations via info@plaatsmaken.nl

Malika Mukhamejan is curator en filmmaker die diverse stemmen in de Centraal-Aziatische cinema belicht, met een focus op vrouwenrepresentatie en gemeenschapsvorming via film. Mukhamejan is oprichter van QYZQARAS, een filmfestival in Almaty dat zich richt op vrouwelijke filmmakers.

QYZQARAS is een onafhankelijk platform en jaarlijks filmfestival in Almaty (Kazachstan) dat in 2023 is opgericht. Het festival versterkt vrouwenstemmen in de cinema, met bijzondere aandacht voor Centraal-Azië. Het festival bevraagd dominante narratieven, ondersteunt nieuwe makers en bied ruimte aan ondervertegenwoordigde perspectieven via filmvertoningen, gesprekken en educatieve projecten. Het motto — “women’s perspectives through the lens of cinema”— weerspiegelt de toewijding aan feministische curatoriële praktijken en de opbouw van een transnationale gemeenschap van kunstenaars, denkers en publiek.

Asian Movie Night (AMN) is een diasporisch filmplatform in Nederland. Het werd opgericht als directe reactie op het structurele gebrek aan Aziatische representatie in de Nederlandse cultuursector. AMN brengt radicaal andere verhalen en esthetieken naar een breed publiek, in samenwerking met diverse culturele instellingen. Met een interdisciplinaire aanpak die film, beeldende kunst, design en gesprekken samenbrengt, daagt AMN het idee van 'Asianness' uit door landsgrenzen en vaste identiteiten te doorbreken.

Darya Andijan is geboren in de Oeigoerse regio en gevestigd in Nederland. Haar werk verweeft mythen, poëzie en familiegeschiedenis om onderdrukking en koloniale uitwissing te bevragen. Met film, performance en schrijven reconstrueert zij gefragmenteerde geschiedenissen en versterkt zij vrouwenstemmen in Centraal-Azië. Zo creëert zij plekken waar vergeten geschiedenissen herinnerd en opnieuw verbeeld worden.

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