Aiturgan Ainakulova
Directing
Biography
Aiturgan Ainakulova (Kyrgyz: Айтурган Айнакулова; born February 27, 2000; Bishkek) is a Kyrgyz writer-director and festival programmer. An alumna (2023) of an American University of Central Asia "AUCA" with Bachelor's in Film and Media Arts. Her debut short film "Zamandash" is an experiment of genres and themes on self-identity and friendship released in 2022 during her junior year. Second short film "How Will I Ever Get Out of This Labyrinth of Suffering?", 2023 is senior thesis work - an irony on director's personal experience on making the graduate film. Aiturgan noticed to work experimenting with genres and having a focus themes on existentialism and self-identity.
Known For

Jamal is a five-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother in a village. One day, she notices the red heels of a woman entering their house. The woman greets Jamal, but the girl is too shy to approach her. Hearing the conversation between the woman and her grandmother, Jamal realises that this beautiful woman is her mother. Jamal gradually gets closer to the woman, opens up to her and spends time sleeping next to her mother. Morning comes. Jamal wakes up and realises that the woman is gone. She goes out into the corridor and sees that the red shoes have disappeared.
Red Heels

A rural high school student Burul is interested in wrestling. The wrestling coach won't let her train at the boys' gym, so she trains at home alone. Burul’s father believes that wrestling is not for girls and forbids her to do it. One guy from a neighboring village kidnaps Burul to marry her after several unsuccessful attempts to talk to Burul.
Burul

Film student fails to complete her senior project while fighting with her critical father and getting dumped by her boyfriend.
"How Will I Ever Get Out of This Labyrinth of Suffering?"

Film opens up the door to a local young group of friends, who were raised in a big city, influenced by a western pop culture and have spoken Russian their whole life. It unveils the topic of self identity and honesty between our inner and outer selves.