13-year old Alehan and his brother Amir spend several hours every day hunched over a chessboard. It’s his biggest dream to become the next World Chess Champion. The first step on the way to become a grandmaster is a tournament in Chess-City. The event full of young players, allows us to see the actors and creators as well as expose the mechanisms behind the Kalmykian chess fairytale. For Alehan it’s a chance to examine his dreams more closely. Ilyumzhinov’s revolution was supposed to transform the whole republic, but can it even change the life of just one small boy?
Magdalena Piкta studied humanistics at the Warsaw University and film directing at Polish National Film School in Јуdџ, scriptwriter and director of short films (Who Art Thou?, Hunger, Everything Will Be). Planet Kirsan is her first long documentary film.
