Cosmonauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu spent six months on the Chinese space station and filmed the action themselves using a specially designed 8K camera. Therefore, the film offers a true representation of everyday life in space, not a computer-generated reconstruction.

Organizers chose this film for the opening ceremony for a reason. According to Gao Chen, Director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Bishkek, it aims to showcase one side of today’s China—the development of technology and the space industry.

Organizers sought to select films from a variety of genres and eras to showcase both modern and historical China through multiple stories.

«This can be seen as the latest achievements of the Chinese film industry and will give the Kyrgyz people a good chance to better understand our lives, Chinese culture, both ancient and modern,» Wang Bin, Director of the China Media Group (CMG) Eurasian Bureau, said.

According to him, the films brought to Bishkek are primarily new.

Shenzhou 13 was released in China late last year, while Pegasus 3 and a historical film from the program — in the first quarter of 2026.

A different side of contemporary Chinese cinema is represented by Pegasus 3, a sports comedy about professional auto racing and race car driver Zhang Chi. The film became one of the biggest Chinese box office hits of 2026.

Cultural differences were taken into account when selecting the program, Wang Bin said. He noted that Kyrgyz and Chinese audiences may perceive the same stories differently due to differences in mentality. However, he believes that cinema can function as a mutually understandable cultural language.

«Through cinema, we get to know our neighbors, friends, colleagues, and partners, learn about their traditions and customs, and begin to understand each other better,» Talant Bektulebekov, Director of the Cinematography Department at the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Youth Policy of the Kyrgyz Republic, said.

He compared this exchange to an extension of the Silk Road into the digital age. While historically, the Silk Road connected countries economically and culturally, today cinema is becoming one of the means of such interaction.

According to Bektulebekov, Kyrgyzstan plans to hold reciprocal Days of Kyrgyz Cinema in China later this year—in Beijing and other cities.

The Days of Chinese Cinema are part of the international project «Light and Shadow of the Silk Road.»