Central Asia: At the Crossroads focuses on short films from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and the Uyghur region of China – works from beyond Europe that, despite navigating profound social and political change, have remained largely invisible on the international stage.
The program offers audiences a nuanced view of Central Asia as a region where authoritarian structures, global cultural influences, and local forms of resistance are deeply interwoven. Film becomes a medium to capture the crossroads of social transformation in an inhomogeneous region marked as much by its shared experiences as by its internal differences.
The festival is structured into four curated screening blocks, presenting films that explore everyday life, collective memory and identity, women’s and queer perspectives, and the lived realities of marginalized communities. (CASFF)
Valeriya Kim is Programme Director of the Cinemalove Film Festival
Gulnoza Irgasheva is a member of the Uzbek feminist collective Maqaal
Amina Alish and Danyil Potopaiev are the founders of the Central Asian Short Film Festival. Amina is a Master’s student at the Osteuropa-Institut Berlin and a member of grassroots feminist collective “Qizlar” from Uzbekistan. Danyil is a Master’s student at the same institute and part of the Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin team.