Beautifully acted and photographed, this is an extraordinary and quietly powerful film from writer/director, Alexander Kott. Test won best film at the Turkish Film Festival and also at Kinotavr in Sochi; and the success is all the more remarkable in that there are no words spoken. It is set in a remote part of Kazakhstan in 1949 and is based on the true events of Hydrogen bomb testing by Soviet authorities. The story centres around ‘Tolgat’ and his teenage daughter ‘Dina’, whose harmonious relationship to nature is startlingly dismantled by the impending operation. As the final scenes of this film reach their conclusion, you can fully appreciate a filmmaker at the very top of his game. The director Alexander Kott will be in Kilkenny.