While he is operating on a patient for a brain tumour, a surgeon notices a „20“ tattooed on the patient’s hand. He recognizes his patient as his childhood neighbour, and this reminds him of their life in Alma-Ata in the fifties, as they lived in the same building at number 20. Then they grew in a period of ending Stalinism, among adults who were both coward and brave. He starts dreaming of the balcony, which was their refuge…

Shakhimarden Khusainov, Olzhas Suleimenov
Aubakir Suleyev
/ Music Sofya Gubajdulina, Alfred Schnittke
Sound Zinaida Mukhamedzhanova
Cast Ismail Igilmanov, Yuri Goroshevsky, Kuanysh Sarsenbekov, Anvar Chuzhegulov, Zibagul Karina
Production Kazakhfilm
Year of production 1988
Running time 84’

Kalykbek Salykov

Kalykbek Salykov was born in 1952 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He studied at the Kazakh Institute of Theatre and Cinema from 1976 till 1980, while he was working for the television. After the graduation, he worked in Chimkent Theatre, where he directed 7 plays. Since 1981 he worked for Kazakhfilm. In 1984, after short cinema courses organized by Kazakhfilm, he made his first short film, Tor. He shot in 1985 another short, Golden Mekre, and in 1991 his second feature film after The Balcony (1988), Lovers of December. He tragically died in a car accident in 1995.