Beshbarmak

Beshbarmak (2023) is a Kazakh drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Beibit Oner. Daulet works at a roadside café on the highway — steady work, nothing more. One afternoon a well-known Almaty restaurateur pulls over.

The kitchen isn't prepared for guests like this. Daulet's grandmother improvises, putting together beshbarmak the way she always has. The restaurateur finishes the plate and makes an offer: come work in Almaty, and cook it exactly like that. What follows is a story about what it takes to reproduce something learned by watching rather than by reading. Stream Beshbarmak (2023) online on iFILM.