Armed with radical tenderness, the filmmaker dives into the emotional landscape of Kazakhstan through the voices of women living along the river. Approaching the age of thirty, these young women reveal the scars of being a woman and what it means to resist constant oppression in their homeland.
Country : Kazakhstan, Switzerland, United Kingdom Year : 2026 Length : 99 minutes Production : 24 FPS Director : Kristina Mikhailova Screenplay : Kristina Mikhailova
Gulnaz Moldakhmet, Inzhu Abeu, Alexandra Cherezova, Akzel Beisembay, Juliya Jenis
Kristina Mikhailova is a director, producer and artist from Kazakhstan, Central Asia. “River Dreams”, her debut documentary feature, premiered at the Berlinale in 2026. Her artistic practice extends beyond film; in 2024, she participated in a collective exhibition at the Venice Biennale. As an activist, she founded Women make Docs, a grassroots initiative supporting female documentary filmmakers in Central Asia.
