The Girl with the Red Scarf begins as truck driver Ilyas (Kadir Inanır) hauls a load of sand and gravel to a construction site; along the way he meets Asya (TĂĽrkan Şoray), a beautiful young woman from the countryside. Smitten, the couple run off together. At first all is fine: a son is born, and they set about creating a life together. But then Ilyas loses his job, and starts to slip away, drifting into alcohol and the arms of other women. Asya leaves him and eventually meets Cemşit, an older man eager to marry her and adopt her son. But just at it seems life is settling down for Asya, Ilyas reappears. Based on a novel by acclaimed Kyrgyz writer Chengiz Aitmatov—hailed by French poet Louis Aragon as “the world’s greatest love story”—The Girl with the Red Scarf has remained immensely popular over the years, touching each new generation with its challenging exploration of love and responsibility.