Article by Ashley Hajimirsadeghi, photograph via IEA.org

Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia, has been going through its cinematic renaissance since the 1980s. Bordered by Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, this landlocked country is highly diverse. However, it is impossible to discuss Kazakhstan and its cinematic history without addressing the influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

The Russian Empire originally began expanding into Kazakhstan in the early 1800s. Kazakhstan, at that time, was in an era called the Kazakh Khanate, which succeeded their era under Mongol rule. Upon their arrival, Russians slowly replaced Kazakh culture. However, with the fall of the Russian Empire, the Kazakh people were able to resist the Bolsheviks until 1920 when their country was absorbed into the Soviet Union.

Propaganda documentaries for the Soviet Union were often made in Kazakhstan, fostering the beginnings of the industry in the area. The first-ever Kazakh film, Amangeldy (1939), featured a local Kazakh hero allying with the Bolsheviks to take out a leader from the Russian Empire. With the advent of World War II, the Soviet Union ended up moving most of its cinematic production to Kazakhstan, including one of the most prestigious film schools. Many Kazakh directors would go to this school, creating a new generation of local filmmaking talent.

This new generation would create the Kazakh New Wave in the early 1980s. Traditionally in Kazakh Soviet cinema, there would be scenic views of the landscape and people, displaying an image of blissful unity. The Needle/Игла (Rashid Nugmanov, 1988) was one of the first to challenge this notion of Kazakhstan as an ideal attachment to the Soviet Union. Nugmanov stepped outside of the national identity forged for the nation and created a completely new one.

The Kazakh New Wave continued to prosper with the fall of the Soviet Union and the establishment of Kazakhstan as an individual nation. As Kazakhstan began to navigate its path, so did its directors; often, they chose to go down the auteur route of independent filmmaking. These films were frequently funded by the government or by French producers. The film Racketeer/Reketir (Akan Satayev, 2007) is said to be the first-ever commercial box office film. The cinema made within the country was niche since many people preferred Russian or American films. Yet, directors like Timur Bekmambetov have been known to produce both Russian and Hollywood hits.

Common themes and narratives that have arisen are the poverty Kazakhstan has faced since the fall of the Soviet Union, minimalism, and miserable emotions. While roughly fifteen films are made a year in the country, the talent shown within these films continues to shine through, offering hope for the future of the Kazakh film industry.

Notable Films:

• Nagima (Zhanna Issabayeva, 2013)

Issabayeva, one of the only female directors in Kazakhstan, came back with Nagima in 2013. Nagima presented a narrative about single women in Kazakhstan; her protagonist, an orphan seen as undesirable by society, often wonders about the point of living when she’s stuck in a miserable situation. A quiet and minimal film, its women are depicted as all struggling in their own unique ways.

• The Gentle Indifference of the World (Adilkhan Yerzhanov, 2018)

A drama film that was screened at Cannes Film Festival, the main character, Saltanat, moves from the countryside to the city when her father dies. She needs to pay off her family’s debt, but her biggest admirer from the village has followed her to the city. Both struggle in their new lives, but they never seem to truly give up.

• Racketeer/Рэкетир (Akan Satayev, 2007)

A crime thriller, Racketeer follows a boy named Sayan who is living through the upheaval Kazakhstan faced in the 1990s with the fall of the USSR. Sayan is an ordinary child who is very interested in boxing, but quickly gets involved with criminals and the underworld. As a result, he can’t seem to escape the life in which he finds himself trapped.

• The Needle/Игла (Rashid Nugmanov, 1988)

In this film, one of the first of the Kazakh New Wave, a man named Moro returns to Alma-Ata and stays with his ex-girlfriend. He is there to collect a criminal’s debt to him, but discovers his ex-girlfriend is illegally hoarding drugs as an addict. Being a thriller film, the situation escalates and turns ugly fast.