"THE BITTER HERB" AWARDED IN KAZAKHSTAN

Maria's Ornaf film won an award for best direction at Almaty Independent Film Festival.

It was already the 4th edition of Kazakh festival Almaty Independent, which focuses on non-commercial cinema and in its categories distributes selected films by their budgets. Maria Ornaf's "The Bitter Herb" received the award for best female director in a film with budget over $5k US dollars. What's interesting, no prize for male director was awarded.

In the past, when mothers wanted to stop breastfeeding, they would rub their breasts with an infusion of wormwood, so that the bitter taste would make the child never want breast milk again.