“A Dark, Dark Man” by Adilkhan Yerzhanov won a special prize at the Vesoul Film Festival, France. It was announced at the closing ceremony of the Festival yesterday, February 18. Festival International des Cinemas d'Asie de Vesoul is a film festival designed to present and promote Asian cinema in Europe. Yerzhanov’s film was presented out of competition and won Theater Manager’s Award.

- I am very glad that the film won Theater Manager’s Award.  It means a lot, especially since the film was presented out of competition! - Adilkhan Yerzhanov shared his impressions.

The film was created by “Short Brothers” (Kazakhstan) with the participation of Arizona Productions (France). This dramatic thriller tells the story of a Detective Bekzat (actor Daniyar Alshinov) who wants to close the case as soon as possible, because the perpetrator - a harmless local moron Pukuar (Teoman Khos) - has already been found by local policemen. But everything falls apart when a journalist Ariana (Dinara Baktybaeva) comes from the city. Now Bekzat must conduct a real investigation, following procedure, for the first time in his career.

The world premiere of “A Dark, Dark Man” took place on September 23, 2019, in Spain. The film was shown as part of the main competition program of the 67th International Film Festival in San Sebastian. The San Sebastian International Film Festival is one of the oldest Class A film festivals in the world (along with Cannes, Berlin and Venice).

In November 2019, Adilkhan Yerzhanov was awarded the “Asia Pacific Screen Awards-2019” (Asian Oscar) in the nomination “Achievement in Directing” for “A Dark, Dark Man”. He is the first director from Kazakhstan who has won the APSA in this nomination.

As a reminder, last year “A Dark-Dark Man” (working title “Kuandyk”) won the pitching of projects at the Almaty Film Festival.