Joktaou – Khronika miortvovo moria

The Aral Sea. An island of water amidst the ocean of Central Asian deserts. Between Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya, age-old civilisations were nourished by the Aral Sea. Today, due to the gigantic irrigation works undertaken during the Soviet period, the rivers no longer spill into the sea, which is now drying up. The word ‘zhoktau’ conveys the distress and lament of a people forced to leave their homeland.