Kazakh

Didar is a poet, but he cannot live from his poetry.
He has to write early in the mornings before setting out for his day job as a newspaper editor.
Didar is surrounded by a sense of crisis, not just because of his economic situation,
but also due to discussions at work about the diminishing significance of Kazakh culture,
dying languages, and the worldwide dominance of English.
He is questioning whether poetry is still relevant in today’s world,
but finds solace in contemplating a rebellious 19th-century poet, Makhambet Otemisuly.Read More »

A civil war rages across a vast, seemingly unpopulated landscape. As men fight and die, a mute woman searches for her son who has been kidnapped by child organ traffickers. She is accompanied by ‘the Steppenwolf’, a reformed ex-convict now hardened into a ruthless investigator. They resemble a bloody odd couple, but are determined to see their mission through, removing every obstacle – most of them human – in their path. Adilkhan’s Steppenwolf stands as a testament to his cinematic prowess, skilfully interweaving classic elements from stylised Westerns, road movies and bloody revenge dramas. Read More »

Synopsis:
After her husband mysteriously disappears, all the hardships of survival in the cold winter period in the far away village in Kazakhstan have to be carried out by Mariam, the mother of four small kids. To save the situation, she is forced to make some fatal decisions, but also to rediscover her femininity. When everything seems to start running better, her husband suddenly returns as if nothing has happened. Can the previous life flow be restored now?Read More »

Quote:
In the rural Soviet-era Kazakh village of Bazarbaï in the Kzylordinskye district, a reticent and impassive boy named Jasulan (Jasulan Asauov) watches his father ride away on horseback into the arid frontier before sneaking into the utility shed, activating the house portable generator, and returning to the living room – past the silent, disapproving gaze of his doting mother in the kitchen – to watch the faint, occasionally distorted black and white image of a Russian language television broadcast. Jasulan’s self-indulgent diversion, however, inevitably proves brief as the power abruptly goes out, having been disconnected by his pragmatic father who has unexpectedly returned home to the sound of the noisy, sputtering engine, and dismissively (and amusingly) scolds the boy for wasting scarce fuel “to see naked women”. Read More »

A slice-of-life story on globalised capitalism’s impact on Kazakhstan, its contemporary urban culture, and the lonely road that patrons of the arts walk in a country where art is often overlooked and underappreciated.Read More »

A solitary philosophy student steers his directionless life toward a violent crime, spurred on by a post-Soviet order characterized by growing inequality, institutional corruption and a ruthless ethic. Inspired by Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Official selection of the prestigious Global Lens Collection presented by the Global Film Initiative.Read More »

Educational film by Darezhan Omirbayev for film schools students.

AUTOGRAPHS
A series of educational films, “Autographs” is a textbook for students of cinema department, which is dedicated to the works of great authors of word cinema. These films show and explore the most colorful and unique pieces that are typical and repetitive directorial techniques from the film (scenes), which are important in the work of one or another author. Read More »

Tanabay is a proud Kazakh war hero and loyal Communist who is pressured into taking a position as a herdsman in a collective farm in the Stalinist era after WWII. The pride and joy of the collective is a beautiful stallion named Gulsary. After Gulsary wins a race, the new commissar of the collective lays claim to the beloved and headstrong horse, which leads to a battle of a wills. Tanabay and Gulsary are both punished and separated for their refusal to bend to the rules of the Stalinist era.Read More »

Quote:
A portrait of five brothers living on a farm on the Kazakh plains, where the sudden intrusion of the modern world brings corruption, temptation and deceit.Read More »