We Live Here

Zhanana Kurmasheva / Kazakhstan / 2025 / World Premiere / 80 min

Something is very wrong. Two scientists in white spacesuits scour a barren landscape. Although there is not a human being to be seen for miles, the area is haunted by unseen forces. Because out here, on the vast steppes of Kazakhstan, a doomsday weapon has been experimented with in the past, and although the years have passed, the past is still haunting the site. 

Out here we meet three generations of people, each living in the shadow of the past in their own way. An elderly eyewitness to the nuclear tests writes down his memories. His son fights to save his sick daughter’s life, while scientists try to delineate the radioactive zones. In the background, the silent steppe rests like a sleeping giant and a terrifying image of what the world would look after humanity has exterminated itself. 

Zhanana Kurmasheva’s debut feature is a chilling and cinematic work, with each carefully arranged image contributing to a whole that only grows in existential gravity and historical scale as the film progresses. A visionary film that never loses sight of the painful struggles of its protagonists.