River Dreams

DUTCH PREMIERE

Along a Kazakh river, women lay bare love, rage and survival. Their voices cut through water and silence, turning scars into resistance.

Armed with radical tenderness, the director dives into the emotional landscape of Kazakhstan through the voices of women along the river. The director, Kazakhstan and the river girls have all just turned thirty, that brutal age when you realise no one is coming to save you. The river girls reveal the scars of being a woman and what it means to resist constant oppression in their homeland. So close your eyes. Drown in river dreams.

SCREENINGS

Friday 6 November 18:45
Saturday 7 November 12:00

Director Kristina Mikhailova will be present for a Q&A after the screenings
Friday 6 November – moderated by Margje de Koning, director of Movies That Matter Festival

Programme section(s): Docs Open Debates | East of East | Through Women’s Lenses
Original title: Сны реки | Year: 2026 | Runtime: 98′
Country: Kazakhstan, United Kingdom, Switzerland | Language: Kazakh, Russian, Chechen | Subtitles: English
Cast: Alexandra Cherezova, Dana Ageleuova, Mira Ungarova, Aiya Kuzenbayeva, Juliya Jenis
Director: Kristina Mikhailova | Production: Dana Sabitova – 24 FPS; Mira Film Basel; Sylph Productions | Screenplay: Kristina Mikhailova | Cinematography: Amir Zarubekov | Editing: Arya Rothe, Kristina Mikhailova

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Berlin International Film Festival, 2026 – Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, World Premiere (Forum Special) | One World International Human Rights Film Festival, 2026 | Margaret Mead Film Festival, 2026 | FEST – New Directors/New Films Festival, 2026

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Kristina Mikhailova is a director, producer, and artist from Kazakhstan. Her debut feature River Dreams premiered at the Berlinale Forum. Her artistic practice extends beyond film; she has participated in a collective exhibition at the Venice Biennale. As an activist, Kristina founded Women Make Docs, a grassroots initiative supporting female documentary filmmakers in Central Asia.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

My film is a love-hate letter to Kazakhstan, told through a female gaze, already an act of resistance where I come from. I wanted to flood the screen with beautiful Kazakh girls: our strength, rage, pain, and tenderness, tenderness, tenderness. Radical tenderness. When I speak of radicality, I mean radical vulnerability, the courage to be painfully honest and to believe that sincerity can disarm.