Requiem for the Caspian
Amu Darya: River to a Missing Sea 
Full-Moon Cinema Screenings

We invite you to join us for a special full moon screening featuring two films that explore the human and ecological stories shaped by shrinking seas, offering intimate portraits of communities living in the wake of disappearing waters.

Requiem for the Caspian
A poetic film that echoes the stories of receding waters — a theme that resonates with the fate of the Aral Sea.

As the Caspian Sea disappears, its spirit haunts the fishermen, women, and other resident creatures of Pirallahi Island, off the coast of Baku, in a desperate attempt to remember their forgotten stories, while an uncertain future beckons. Their forgotten stories resurface like echoes from the deep, reminding us of the fragile bond between people and the waters that sustain them.

Amu Darya: River to a Missing Sea 
Since 2023, three Oxford University students and thirty-six students from Karakalpakstan and Khorezm have collaborated to create an oral history film about the Amu Darya Delta in Uzbekistan.

Amu Darya: River to a Missing Sea explores the environmental and human stories of the shrinking Amu Darya river. Once flowing into the Aral Sea, the river has been dramatically altered by intensified irrigation policies of the USSR – contributing to the transformation of the Aral Sea from the world’s fourth largest lake into the world’s youngest desert.

Through personal accounts from Khorezmi and Karakalpak communities, the film reveals stories of loss, adaptation, and hope that continue to shape life along the river to a missing sea.

Followed by: Q&A with the director Suad Gara

Advance sign-up is necessary