National Premiere of The Prisoner of Wakhan

Janyl Jusupjan’s short film Homage to Water (Kyrgyzstan/USA) has been selected as a finalist at the Burabay Short Film Festival in Kazakhstan and will compete in the Ecology Films Section at the VIII Forum of Female Filmmakers in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Both festivals take place in December 2025. Previously nominated for Best Short Documentary at the […]

Janyl Jusupjan’s short film Homage to Water (Kyrgyzstan/USA) has been selected as a finalist at the Burabay Short Film Festival in Kazakhstan and will compete in the Ecology Films Section at the VIII Forum of Female Filmmakers in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. Both festivals take place in December 2025.

Previously nominated for Best Short Documentary at the BNP Paribas Green Festival (Poland, 2023), Homage to Water continues its international journey with broadcast acquisitions by Pakistan Public TV, Current Time TV (USA), and Ismaili TV, reaching audiences across the U.S., France, Pakistan, India, and the former Soviet republics.

The film received the John B. Oakes Award for Environmental Journalism from Columbia University (2022) and is distributed by Voices from the Roof of the World / Chagaldak Production.

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ABOUT JJ

Janyl, Chukotka

Janyl Jusupjan is a Kyrgyz documentary filmmaker born  into a lineage of oral storytellers and shamanic musicians. Her work honors ancestral memory and resilience, blending a nomadic Central Asian worldview with the contemplative aesthetics of French cinema.