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Samal Yeslyamova gets best actress prize at Cannes for role in Sergey Dvortsevoy’s Ayka

Ayka, made with the support of the Russian Culture Ministry, was one of two Russian productions in the competition

CANNES /France/, May 19. /TASS/. Samal Yeslyamova of Kazakhstan received the Best Performance by an Actress prize at the 71st Cannes Film Festval for her role in the Ayka movie by Russian director Sergey Dvortsevoy.

Dvortsevoy’s social drama follows the story of a Kyrgyz migrant worker Ayka, who has just given birth, but is forced to abandon her newborn baby in a Moscow hospital and try to survive.

"When you are making a film, it is important to make it exactly the way the director sees it, the way we want to see it. This was our main goal, and it helped us to go ahead," Yeslyamova told reporters.

Ayka, made with the support of the Russian Culture Ministry, was one of two Russian productions in the competition. The other film, Kirill Serebrennikov’s Leto, received no awards.