Central Asia is a landlocked region where local populations have long harnessed the sun, desert, and scarce water resources for survival. Under Soviet rule, it became a showcase of modernisation — a vanity project of the Soviet authorities aimed at conquering nature itself. The region still bears the marks of Soviet mismanagement and enduring Russian influence. 

Each experimental, collaboratively made short in this programme explores an architectural or natural phenomenon in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, linked to one of the classical elements: the Aralkum Desert (earth), the Baikonur Cosmodrome (air), the solar furnace at the Institute of the Sun (fire), and Lake Balkhash, now at risk of desiccation (water). Together, the films oscillate between awe and despair, prompting reflection on human-made disasters, environmental degradation, and climate change.

The screening will be preceded by an extended introduction from the event’s curator and followed by a panel discussion featuring Madina Gazieva, a researcher of water governance and the political ecology of water in Central Asia at Dublin City University; Makar Tereshin, whose PhD at UCL examined the communities, ecologies, and economies that form in and around the Baikonur Cosmodrome; and film scholar Tiago de Luca (University of Warwick), who has recently edited the anthology Elemental World Cinema (Brill, 2025) on the relationship between cinema and the classical elements.

This programme is curated by Misha Zakharov. 

Dreamtime, dir. Jane and Louise Wilson, UK 2001, 7 mins 
Aralkum, dir. Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko, Uzbekistan/Germany 2022, 14 mins 
This World Does Not Fit Into My Eyes, dir. Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson, Uzbekistan/Canada 2023, 17 mins
Balqaş Jyry, dir. Artcom Platform, Kazakhstan 2025, 19 mins