Originally from Uzbekistan, Varia Garib is a Vienna-based filmmaker and co-founder of Zanzara Films. With a background in art history and fashion, she studied film directing at the School of New Cinema. Since 2023, together with Kirill Komar, she has written and directed Aysu, Mosquito, and Yuragim, which premiered at Berlinale Shorts in 2026.
PROJECT
Yuragim
Shukhrat returns to his hometown too late to see his mother alive. He remains in the family house for the forty days of mourning with his sister Saida, trying to become the man of the family and repair what has been neglected: relationships, broken objects, fragile hopes. For Saida, their mother’s death opens the possibility of freedom. A violent encounter with a policeman on a deserted road, a consequence of Shukhrat’s choices, makes her decision inevitable: she leaves. In a final attempt to hold on to what remains, Shukhrat takes his little estranged daughter Shirin to a kopkari festival: horses, dust, hundreds of men. For a brief moment they move through the chaos together. Then he loses her. Searching for Shirin, he enters a cave where ancient petroglyphs appear in the light of his last matches before darkness returns. After what feels like an endless passage of time, the camera finds the light. Snow is falling over a silent, empty landscape.
