To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die marks director Djamshed Usmonov (Angel On the Right) out as one of the brightest talents of post-Soviet cinema. Sparer, bleaker and much more unsettling than his previous films it stars Khurched Golibekov as the sullen, wide-eyed Kamal, who has been married for a few months, but is unable to consummate his marriage. Learning that there is nothing physically wrong with him after visiting a doctor, Kamal sets off to town to find a woman. With his child-like, country-boy naivete, he struggles to meet anyone until a chance encounter on a bus. This accidental meeting takes him on a far more troubling and darker journey than he was counting on… Compared by critics to Krzysztof Kieslowski’s A Short Film About Love, Usmanov's absolutely sure-footed direction and storytelling make for a film that gently, gradually pulls the rug out from under our feet, in a classic example of less-is-more film-making.