Offering a singular look at life in contemporary Central Asia, this moving family drama follows the entertaining exploits of a scheming ex-con, his two wives and the young son he thought he’d lost, as they make their way across Kyrgyzstan.

Hoping to win back into the affections of her ne’er-do-well husband Karabas, Zhipara tracks down the son who’d disappeared years before. Karabas reluctantly agrees to take in Zhipara and the boy, much to the chagrin of his moody, younger second wife. Crammed together in a clunky, Soviet-era truck, this dysfunctional family unit makes its way across Kyrgyzstan, clinging to one another even as hardscrabble circumstances, and their own foibles, threaten to tear them apart.

With her feature debut director Elizaveta Stishova laces humor into an atypical roadtrip story, highlights the rugged landscape of Kyrgyzstan, and shows a clear-eyed affection for each of her flawed but deeply human characters.

In competition for the New Voices New Visions Award.