Motherland

Original title Otan

In villages across Kazakhstan, every morning the herds are driven out to graze in nearby pastures, and in the evening, the shepherds drive the herds back home. For Kazakhs, every person has a special blood-bond with the land where he was born. That land is like a second mother that he should love, honour and return to.
In OTAN (Motherland), a Kazakh student in Prague returns home to Kazakhstan for the first time in a year. Soon thereafter, his father returns to his birthplace after 35 years away. A journey from Prague to Kazakhstan and across the steppe, this film travels with father and son as they fulfill their duties to their parents and re-discover their ‘otan’ (motherland).

Author/s Robert Eagle

Born and raised in America, Robert went to the University of St Andrews, Scotland for his undergraduate education, where he studied Russian and Social Anthropology. He first spent time in Kazakhstan in 2005 as part of his studies, where he combined his ethnographic research and love for photography in his first film, Muscles, Killing and Explosions: Hollywood in Kazakhstan. He then returned to Kazakhstan two years later for his Masters research and to film Otan (Motherland).

Research Robert Eagle
Photography Robert Eagle
Sound Robert Eagle
Editing Robert Eagle