Aimar Erbolat

The Season When I Became a Man

Duman Birleskhan

Darkhan Oilanbek, Dinara Maken

Kazakh has an old tradition that every Kazakh boy over the age of five has to be circumcised in autumn. This traditional ceremony has a symbolic meaning that a boy is about to become a man. This story is about a young Kazakh boy who comes to his grandfather’s house in the grassland of pastoral areas with his family, and goes through the traditional circumcision ceremony. During the process, he becomes fearful after discovering it is a medical surgery. Although he tries to run away from it, he eventually goes through the ceremony. With the physiological changes, his character and thoughts change and he is on his path to adulthood…