‘About Mannequin’ Short Film Qualifies For Oscar Consideration
- Tom Teicholz
- Oct 4, 2024
- 2 min read
Last year I traveled to the Republic of Georgia in November where my friends Giorgi Rtskhiladze and his wife Ayanat Ksenbai renewed their wedding vows in a beautiful ceremony in a 6th Century monastery. I returned shortly after, but Giorgi and Ayanat, who were originally scheduled to return after a brief visit to Ayanat’s native Kazakhstan, stayed on for the next eight months.
Turns out what they were doing is making an almost 40-minute short film, About Mannequin, directed by 34-year-old director Aruzhan Dossymoka, and that was shot in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s former capital with a Kazakh crew. The film, which has just opened in San Francisco and will soon be shown in New York and Los Angeles, has qualified for Oscar consideration in the short film category. And it could well win.
Produced by Ayanat Ksenbai and Marvin Peart in partnership with Foresee Films’ Carr Bettis and Giorgi Rtskhiladze and WonderHill Studios, the film stars Ayanat, who is one of Kazakhstan's most beloved actors. As a teenager she worked with such revered directors as Milos Forman, Sergei Bodrov and Ivan Passer in Nomad, and Volker Schlondorff in Ulzhan. About Mannequin is Ayanat’s return to the screen after raising her three young children and she delivers a mature and masterful performance that is as heart-wrenching as it is haunting.
About Mannequin is a striking film in many ways. From a story and script written by Ayanat and Giorgi, About Mannequin is a Black and White film with very little dialogue. It is a modern silent film that tells a mysterious story about a cursed wedding dress and the woman, played by Ayanat, who comes under its spell and must marshal her strength to break free and get revenge.
A drama, the film has surrealist moments where the viewer is not sure of what is real and what a dream. There are leaps of logic in the narrative which, as viewers, we come to accept. We never know what country, or what time period the film is set, and even what language is being spoken (this is actually one of the first films in the US to feature the Kazakh language). Strangely enough, this makes the film universal and able to be understood by people all over the world. The film resonates with echoes of Old Hollywood, while marrying them to Kazakh traditions of storytelling.
The moving score by Giorgi and Beka Gochiashvili and the haunting main song, sung by Lucia, add to the film’s eerie spell as does Stephanie Michelle Bettis’ production design and the stunning wedding dress designed by Aydana Omorova.
What is transcendent about the film is that at its core, About Mannequin is a story about a mother and the power of women to believe in things greater than themselves. It is a film whose power stays with you long after the credits end.