BECAUSE I AM A GIRL  
dir. Sayazhan Ispolganova, Alisa Tyan, Rosita Keneshova, Fatima Chorobekova, Alina Alybekova, Dariya Murzulukova, Aiana Baimuratova

The film's multi-voice narration transforms it into a choral piece, weaving collective perspectives and lived experiences into a single breath. The blurred borders between each segment — purposely diffused, making it hard to know exactly who is speaking or when one voice ends and another begins — mirror the film's core spirit: raising voices together to build awareness. This dissolving of individual identity into collective expression is also embedded in the directorial structure itself, co-directed by seven women, a statement in its own right.

The film touches on themes of civil rights, beauty standards, body image, violence, and freedom — including, notably, the use of the hijab, an artifact often framed as oppression through a "Western" lens. Here, the film carves out space to explore how it can also be a form of expression and personal choice for women in Kyrgyzstan, resisting easy readings from the outside. 

Visually, the film works through a black-and-white "photocopy" aesthetic intervened by bright colors and stop-motion shapes. The style reads as both a critique of rigid, replicable structures and a means of breaking free from them. The colors feel emotionally coded, tracking the feelings carried in the voices: frustration, desperation, suffocation, hope, release.

The sound design is another strong device, carrying tension and intimacy throughout. It amplifies feelings of oppression, violence, and fear when needed, without overpowering the testimonies. The closing song lands as a modern, multi-voice protest, a declaration that these women exist, and that telling their stories is itself a revolutionary act.

Where the film could push further is in developing even a subtle narrative arc, a single thread an audience could follow across the fragments. Without it, the piece occasionally feels more like a collection of scenes than a complete journey. That said, the emotional clarity and collective force of the film more than compensate, and the craft on display — especially for an independent, collaborative work — speaks to a genuine and exciting filmmaking voice worth following closely

7/10