In Sharipa Urazbayeva’s stunning directorial debut, premiering online on The Calvert Journal, Mariam, a mother of four small children, struggles to survive in a remote village on the Kazakh Steppe after her husband disappears and is presumed dead. Visually rich, jarring, and painfully realistic, Mariam obscures the line between documentary and fiction, and offers a window into a world most cannot imagine.

Sharipa Urazbayeva