Kyrgyz documentary on woman farmer wins Agrofilm award

The farmer starts a fire, takes out the horse and attempts to fix the tractor. So far, this looks like an average morning routine in the far-flung mountainous areas of Kyrgyzstan.

However, nothing is average here: The farmer, Zamira, is a woman with three university degrees who left city life behind to herd yaks in the village.

Zamira is the main character of the short documentary The Rock, directed by Kyrgyz filmmaker Altynay Adamalieva. The film recently won the Osiris Award, decided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), at the 2025 International Film Festival Agrofilm.

The 17-minute documentary follows Zamira in her daily life. The farmer – who has university degrees in programming, accounting and law – now shepherds yaks from the back of her horse, leading them as high as 3 500 metres to slopes covered in snow. She also cooks food and repairs broken agricultural machinery.

Being a livestock farmer in rural Kyrgyzstan has its difficulties, but Zamira is ready to accept them as coming with the life she has deliberately chosen, breaking the stereotypes that are according to her affiliated with being “just” an “uneducated” shepherd. Pastoralism is mostly a male-dominated occupation, what makes Zamira even more unique.

In the film, Zamira shares how much she enjoys being on horseback – a crucial part of working as a pastoralist – and the “feeling of the wind blowing in your face”.

Pastoralism has been – and remains – an important part of rural life in Kyrgyzstan and throughout Central Asia. Ninety percent of the world’s yaks are reared here, providing incomes and futures for many.

Next year, the world will celebrate people like Zamira, as 2026 will be the International Year of the Woman Farmer and the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. FAO will be the lead United Nations agency for both initiatives. In this context, FAO, together with other UN agencies, will lead initiatives addressing gender inequalities in the food and agriculture sectors and strengthening the resilience and empowerment of rural women.

Agrofilm, an international festival in Slovakia, promotes films and video programmes focused on themes related to agriculture and rural development. Its objective is to inform the public about the latest findings in these sectors.

The views and opinions expressed in this programme are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of FAO.