‘Only Heaven Knows’ Director Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva Says ICE Raids Would Have Made Film ‘Impossible’ Today, Talks Strong Wave of Kyrgyz Cinema

The nomadic Alternativa Film Festival travelled over 7,000 miles between its original launchpad of Kazakhstan and Medellín, Colombia, for its third edition. But one of the great audience successes of the festival this year came from close to its roots: Nurzhamal Karamoldoeva’s “Only Heaven Knows,” made by a majority Kyrgyz creative team and shot in Chicago. 

The drama trails Mira (Malika Kanatova), a nail salon worker married to truck driver Eric (Dauren Tashkenbaev). When her husband goes missing, the young woman must uncover his tormentuous double life, including a rampant gambling addiction and piling debts to dangerous men. Speaking with Variety following the successful screenings of her film in Medellín, Karamoldoeva says the film was only possible due to the generous, united Kyrgyz community in Chicago. 

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“We raised funds on our own, it is a totally independent production, and we had such great support from the local diaspora, who really showed up during production with lunches, locations, and overall help,” she says. “It was a very tight schedule, and the film was shot in real businesses around their working hours. We fully utilized the resources that we had.” 

Karamoldoeva, who comes from a documentary background, first heard about the idea for “Only Heaven Knows” following the premiere of her 2023 documentary “Who Is Next?” about bridal kidnappings in Kyrgyzstan. She ended up working closely with screenwriters Jeff Man and Guljan Toktogul to develop a script that felt authentic to the Kyrgyz diaspora in Chicago, and worked with mostly non-professional actors who fed into the story through their own experiences in the U.S.

“We’ve heard many stories of marriages falling apart because husbands are away for long periods working on the road and wives are left on their own, living entirely separate lives,” she recalls. “The police car story that you see in the film happened in real life, and many of the actors played versions of themselves. It’s a very personal film and feels very authentic because of it.”

The director emphasizes how she spent months looking for the right person to play Eric, adding she wanted a “real Kyrgyz truck driver” for the role. The production team found Tashkenbaev four days into production, a tight deadline that, despite nervewracking logistically, gave the film a “beautiful” parallel between life and art: “For the first days of the film, we had Mira looking for Eric both on and off the screen, which I found quite touching. They were great together, and Dauren ended up bringing a lot of his own energy to the screen, so it worked really well.”

“Only Heaven Knows” might be a mystery concerning a young couple, but it is also a poignant look into the immigrant community in Chicago and the hardships of those living with uncertain residency statuses. Karamoldoeva says she would “not have been able to make the film” today, given the tensions with ICE raids in the U.S. “We shot the film between May and June of 2024, before things got really bad,” adds the director.

“A few months after we shot, things really intensified,” she goes on. “When we were in the edit, we kept reading about the raids. During the premiere in Chicago, people from the film team were concerned about attending as the ICE raids were in full effect. People were very cautious because they were so afraid, and some of them had crossed the border into the U.S. or came into the country in all sorts of different ways. Things changed so drastically in the year we spent making the film, that it wouldn’t have been feasible to make it now and it is exactly when it became more important.”

Karamoldoeva notes how “invisible” the Kyrgyz community has been in Chicago despite its considerable size. “People from Central Asia call Chicago Chicagostan because it is a very popular destination for Kyrgyz and Kazakh immigrants,” she adds. “There are very close ties to the diaspora, but the community still feels invisible, and that was a very palpable feeling at our premiere. Many of the audience members were learning about the size of the Kyrgyz diaspora in the city for the first time. I hope this film and more like it become cultural bridges to make the community more visible.”

Despite now being based in the U.S., the director celebrates the recent growth of her national cinema, which has seen festival breakouts such as Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi’s “Deal at the Border,” and is celebrating the third edition of the country’s burgeoning Bishkek International Film Festival in June. “The festival is establishing itself as this focal point for not only regional filmmakers but people coming from all over the world, from festival organizers to critics,” she points out.

“Our films are also very supported by local audiences; there’s an established viewership for them,” continues the director. “A similar phenomenon happened in South Korea when local audiences showing up actually stimulated filmmakers to explore our craft, challenge ourselves, and become better.” Karamoldoeva notes that talent development is still a barrier as the country’s national cinema grows, but that co-productions with neighboring countries such as Kazakhstan ensure that a new generation of filmmakers can learn from already established voices. 

As for what’s next, Karamoldoeva is developing “Taken,” set in 1960s Kyrgyzstan. “It’s about an 18-year-old woman who, after failing state exams, is sent away to distant mountains to avoid rumored bride kidnapping but is nevertheless kidnapped and has to go on a journey back home and to her freedom,” she adds.