This German-Turkmenistani co-produced family adventure movie is about 13-year old Robert (Neidhart Riedel), who journeys to a remote corner of Central Asia to visit his father, who is working on an engineering project. The boy boards a truck driven by Pjotr (Pjotr Olev), along with the latter's young shepherding nephew, for the long trek across the desert. The vehicle is ostensibly carrying an expensive turbine, but Robert learns that Pjotr is also running drugs. Things go from bad to worse when the truck breaks down in the middle of nowhere and Pjotr wanders off to find water. Though Robert and the young shepherd share no common language, they manage to piece together a land-sail rig and find Pjotr at the bottom of a well with an ugly leg injury. Soon both the drug lords and Robert's father are searching for the trio. Karakum was screened at the 1999 Mill Valley Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi