The night is still black. In the narrow beam of her torch, Quralai counts the money for the sweet corn she is about to buy from the pick­ers. At home, she will pre-cook it and then sell it at the market in the city. She has five chil­dren to feed and a house­hold to run. Her hus­band? “He’s a man of the streets … “

Film­mak­er Aishoola Aisae­va accom­pa­nies this resilient farmer through her day - until night falls again and she takes a taxi home. And what does Quralai dream of? To visit Switzer­land once in her life, because she loves the moun­tains, the landscape …

Aishoola Aisae­va is a female doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­ph­er and an inde­pen­dent film­mak­er from Kyr­gyzs­tan. Aishoola start­ed her career as a jour­nal­ist at the age of 13 and has pub­lished arti­cles focus­ing on social issues and nation­al pol­i­tics for local and inter­na­tion­al media. She worked for many local and inter­na­tion­al non-profit organ­i­sa­tions to sup­port women and queer ini­tia­tives, advo­cate for human rights and the cli­mate jus­tice in the Cen­tral Asian region.
Nowa­days, Aishola is engaged with build­ing com­mu­ni­ties through art inter­ven­tions as an artist at the Museum of Fem­i­nist and Queer Art in Kyr­gyzs­tan, empow­er­ing youth, women and com­mu­ni­ties to tell their own sto­ries and to speak up about injus­tice, gender inequal­i­ty, cli­mate crisis through exper­i­men­tal art and photo exhibitions.