Chingiz Aitmatov’s “A day equal to a century”

The play “The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years” can be described as a perspective on the century we live in, seen through the past, present, and future, from Genghis Khan to Chingiz Aitmatov.

The story begins with Yedigei, a railway worker at Boranly station, who embarks on a journey to bury his friend Kazangap in the ancestral burial ground, Ana-Beyit. However, with the Baikonur Cosmodrome now situated where Ana-Beyit once was, the people of Boranly are no longer allowed to go there. While in the original work, this closure is linked to the building of the space station, the play interprets it as a loss of the connection to one’s ancestors and homeland. If sons do not know their fathers and mothers, then the earth will not accept them either. Such people will have no place, even in the infinite galaxy.

The play explores the conflict created by a “no entry” command on a closed road, along with attempts to restore the path from ancient legend to a future extraterrestrial civilization. While the original work speaks about the tragedy of a generation who loses their memory and becomes “mankurts,” continuing with the development of a cosmodrome on ancestral lands, the play tells a story for those who willingly lose their memory, who become voluntary mankurts, unaware of where their ancestors are buried or to which land their genetic code belongs.

“The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years” is a tale about the earth, presented for those who willingly surrender their memory, who forget the genetic codes of their ancestors.

“The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years” – the story of the longest day, about those who have forgotten their ancestral codes…

A day longer than a century. The longest story about Earth and Memory...