Ermek Tursunov’s epic romance Kelin has been named as Kazakhstan’s official foreign language Oscar submission ahead of its North American premiere at Toronto.

Helix Films’ Steven-Charles Jaffe and Gaukhar Noortas discovered the film, which Ed Noeltner’s CMG is representing for international sales.

Kelin is a sparsely worded romantic tribal story about a young beauty forced into an arranged marriage while her true love plots to win her back with disastrous results. It will screen in the Discovery section at Toronto on September 11.

The Helix Films presentation is produced by Kazakhfilm president Ermek Amanshayev.

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