The film Long Distance Love focuses on Alisher, age 18. He lives in the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan, not far from the border to Uzbekistan. He’s a young man looking for love in his life, but who also longs to survive in a country where people are living under severe pressure ever since the breakdown of the Soviet Union.

Alisher marries Dildora, 17, on a sweltering summer day. He’s in love, and for a brief moment in his life, he’s happy. But in order to help his parents and to build a life for himself and his young wife, he must go to Russia and try to find a job. He has to leave his pregnant wife and travel far – the distance between Osh and Moscow is 3,500 kilometres. This is a film with a love story in focus, but it´s also a story on what sometimes only can be described as modern slavery and global injustice.

CREDITS

Directors: Magnus Gertten and Elin Jönsson
Director of Photography: Jon Rudberg
Editor: Jesper Osmund
Music: Magnus Jarlbo
Sound Design: Alexander Thörnqvist
Post production: Minerva Film, Copenhagen
Technical coordinator: Erik Varde
Associate producer: Lina Bertilsson
Kyrgyz producer: Jyldyz Bekbaeva
Produced by: Magnus Gertten and Lennart Ström, Auto Images, Sweden. In co-production with SVT/Lars Säfström and Film i Skåne/Joakim Strand, with support from The Swedish Film Institute/Tove Torbiörnsson and Nordic Film and Television Fund/Eva Færevaag.

Documentary. Running time 88 minutes. 2008.

AWARDS

Special Mention in Warsaw: Long Distance Love received a Special Mention at the Planete Doc Review Festival in Warsaw, May 2009. The jury for the Magic Hour section presented the following motivation at the awards gala: ”A beautiful and universal film about love and hope under rough circumstances”.

SELECTED FESTIVAL LIST

23 July - 2 Aug 2009. Era New Horizons Festival, Wroclaw, Poland.
22 June 2009. Peace & Love festivalen, Borlänge, Sweden.
15-22 June, 2009. NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE at Silverdocs, Silver Spring, MD, USA.
7-17 May, 2009. Planete Doc Review, Warsaw, Poland.
4 April, 2009. Gasterbeiter Festival, Moscow, Russia.
20-23 March, 2009. Eurodok, Oslo, Norway.
13-22 March 2009. INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE at Thessaloniki International Filmfestival, Greece.
27 september, 2008. Nordisk Panorama Festival, Malmö, Sweden.