13-year old Guljamal is a lively girl, who loves to jump around, dance and smash bottles, but she spends her days at home raising her younger brother. She dreams of love and a boy called Marat, but lives in a culture where many young girls are kidnapped and married to strange men.

This is the tagline of the 30-minutes documentary “Love and Broken Glass” shot in Bishkek by a Danish film maker Suvi Andrea Helminen. The film was released in 2006 and got a Jury Second Prize at Documenta Madrid. The documentary follows the teenage Gulu as she takes care of her little brother while her mother works at the bazaar, plays with the other girls of her age, discusses the life and the boys. At the same time, there is a parallel plot, a monologue by an elder Kyrgyz woman, who tells her story of being kidnapped and married to a man at a young age, while being in love with someone else.

The film is funny: Gulu and her little brother watch the Russian TV programs familiar to all post-Soviets. Her brother is a cute boy who is used to being taken care of (and he probably would be, by women around him). Gulu plays with her friends on the roof of the house, and the one who loses in a game has to shout in Russian “I am Jacky Chan!”. Yet the film makes sad impression: the children are left to themselves while their parents try to make their ends meet. Gulu’s mother is a weathered woman who goes to the bazaar every day, and it makes the viewer wonder if this would be Gulu’s life as well. The young girls discuss what it would be like to be kidnapped: if a poor man takes you, you would have to work a lot and sell at the bazaar, while with a rich man you can stay at home and take care of the children. Can it be what these gilrs want? Maybe. And the film does not strive to make conclusions.

The director of the film Suvi Andrea Helminen is a young freelance documentary filmmaker, editor, photographer and teacher. “It wasn’t really my plan to make a film about bride kidnapping; I wanted to make a film about finding one’s identity as a girl/woman”, she says. Read on to find out about the film and the issues highlighted there in the interview with the director of the film.

Could you tell our readers how did you first get acquainted with Kyrgyzstan and the tradition of bride kidnapping?

The Central Asian countries have always interested me, and we get so little information about that part of the world here in Denmark. In 2005 I read an article in an NGO magazine about poverty in Kyrgyzstan in the post Soviet times, and about children that had to work instead of going to school. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to go there and make a documentary.
When I went to Kyrgyzstan I didn’t know about bride kidnapping. The first time I heard about it was in the airplane, when I was reading the tourist guidebook - bride kidnapping was mentioned as a small curiosity in a textbox.

What is your personal attitude to this phenomenon?

It is hard to make judgements on a culture that you are not a part of, but from my point of view I’m glad that I never had to relate to this tradition. I’m well aware that this tradition is mainly practiced in the lower class, but since most of the country is poor, it seems to be an important over-all issue. Through my eyes I think it is unfair that one of the sexes, women, don’t have a choice at all regarding future life and partners. And probably many of the men don’t have a choice either if their family pressure them to kidnap someone.

On the other hand the concept of love can be totally overestimated here in the west, because the search for the perfect partner sometimes overrides the practicalities of creating a well functioning family. Contrarily to life here, I suppose that in some other countries it is a necessity to create a family in order to survive.

Was your film an attempt to show the other, culturally different world to the West, or to bring the attention to a human rights problem?

No, it wasn’t either. The starting point for me, when telling a story, is never to focus on the differences, but on the similarities within the differences. For me it has a greater effect to tell the story in this way – trying to create understanding in a way that unifies people instead of splitting them apart in groups. For instance, regardless of culture, we all somehow strive for happiness; the question is how we try to obtain it. I was aware that there within the story was a human rights issue, but I wanted to approach it in a subtle way.

Your film has elements of game, play. Did you have to stage some scenes, or did you just follow the girls in their everyday lives?

I never told the girls what to do or say, but I did set up some framework for them to act within; most importantly to find situations that the girls could feel relaxed in. For instance I asked the girls where they preferred to play, and they answered that one of their favourite places was the roof of Samara’s building. Then I arranged to meet them on the roof the next day after they’d finished work. They also played at the public playground, but they were too shy to be filmed there. Therefore the location was partly set according to the girls’ own wishes.

Could you tell us a bit more about a girl who played Gulu?

The first time I met Gulu was at a food programme in Bishkek organized by Centre for Protection of Children. At this programme working children could get some lunch everyday and help to get back to school. Most of the children were working at the bazaar or like Gulu, staying at home to take care of her little brother. Gulu appealed to me right away, so I got in touch with her with the help of some of the social workers. Her family was very helpful and thought it was important to inform others about their situation.

How did her family react to this film, did they know why are you filming them?

Actually I don’t know if Gulu’s family has seen the film, because I let it be up to her, when she wanted to show it to them. The interpreter showed the tapes to the girls and as fare as I’m informed they liked it, but had expected something more like a Hollywood film or something, and a bit less serious.

It wasn’t really my plan to make a film about bride kidnapping; I wanted to make a film about finding one’s identity as a girl/woman. I told the family that I wanted to focus on 2-3 generations of women to explore the destinies of women in Kyrgyzstan today in a certain environment. Of course I don’t know exactly how much the girls and their families understood, because everything went through the interpreter.

Furthermore I choose to see myself as an explorer in the filming process, so I don’t come up with preconceived ideas about how reality is. The problem of this method is that it is difficult to explain to the participant what the film will be like from the start. While following events as they occurred I gradually found out what the film would focus on, because the essence often sprung from the filmed material. It was obvious that the girls had a certain interest in boys and love.

What was the reaction of people in general when they knew you are making a film about bride kidnapping?

Generally it was my impression that people didn’t see kidnapping as a shameful tradition that should be kept secret. Everyone talked very openly about it.

Have you seen Peter Lom’s film and what do you think about it?

Yes I have seen it. In that film the bride kidnapping tradition is, in many ways, seen through a western set of values, mainly regarding the concept of love, but I think it is an important film all the same.

Did you show your film in Kyrgyzstan and if not, do you plan to? What reaction do you envisage there?

No, the 3 girls in the film didn’t want it to be shown in Kyrgyzstan, particularly not on TV, because they were afraid to be teased by their friends. Therefore I will respect that agreement.

See the official website of the film here.