Enter an oligarch (Bakhtiyar Kozha), who goes to the same prostitute incidentally. He welcomes his daughter (Linda Nigmatulina) home from study abroad only to find she is a lesbian and engaged. After much hand wringing and probably one of the funnier scenes in the move, she agrees to be impregnated and produce a grandson for her father before marrying her girlfriend. In the search to find the perfect man, it turns out that the virgin who never drinks, smokes or stays out late may be the champion sperm donor in all of Kazakhstan!

It’s a good premise and could have been very funny, but there were too many subplots and distractions. For example, the daughter also brings home a woman for her Poppa to marry (why would she do that?), played by a man in drag (Why not?). This Madeline begins a subplot of trying to seduce the oligarch and keep away other women, but she isn’t on camera often enough for the device to work or for us to care. There’s also an encounter with the military instructor that comes out of nowhere and is quickly forgotten.

The fact that Kairat was supposed to go home to Shimkent early in the movie but never does is also dropped–wouldn’t Mom be a little worried when he didn’t show up? Why was he going home in the middle of the school year anyway?

Also a huge chunk of the movie involved women wanting to sleep with Kairat because he is the number one virgin, but it isn’t completely clear what they want. Do they want to become pregnant by him–and if so, why do his student classmates want to be pregnany? Do they want to share the cash reward the oligarch will pay? Do they think he is a stud in bed? It’s never established but just accepted as funny if women are throwing themselves at him and showing him their breasts all through out the movie.

Despite an all star cast that included experienced actors like Linda Nigmatulina and Bakhtiyar Kozha with cameos by Sergei Polocyan and Nurtas Adambayev (ex-KVN, now on Nasha Kazasha), the acting was not great. Likely more accurately, the directing was bad. Characters came on, said their lines, and went off, with little emotion or linking to their character or the scene. Jokes weren’t delivered well, with the film clearly relying on the situation itself to be funny. In particular, there was no sign of growing love between the two main characters. Suddenly, he decides he loves her, having previously shown no emotion to her whatsoever. She rejects him and then the scene where she changes her mind is filmed with music over the dialogue, so you never actually hear her declare her love, a lazy moment for any screenwriter and director.

Honestly, the cameos were silly, particularly the short subplot involving the singer Nagima Yeskaliyeva Pogocyan who play a woman who wants Kairat’s sperm and the jealous gun-wielding husband (both of whom get lead credits). It felt tacked on, as if the president of KTK had called them into his office and said, “OK, we need to make people watch this move. You will be in it. Go!”

Surprisingly, the best actor in the movie was Turar Davilbekov, himself a movie virgin. He was especially good at the beginning, playing a naive loser who gets walked over by everyone. There was a brief and wonderful moment where he stood up for himself, and he made that transformation quite effectively. However the script let him down and he went back to being a loser quickly thereafter. Regina Iskandarova also did a pretty good job even if she just had one note.

So overall, I’d recommend watching this movie if you have nothing else to do. I would certainly go see what Turar Davilbekov is up to next. But better overall to rent American Pie.

First of all, seats for movies are assigned in Kazakhstan. In the US, seats to the cinema are not assigned. You sit where you want. In the old days in Kazakhstan you didn’t know which seats were taken so you had to tell the box office what kind of seat you wanted and she would assign it to you, but now the new multiplexes have computer screens that show you a plan of the theater and which seats are still open. But nevertheless one oddity remains. While most Americans I know like to be in the front rows–maybe not the front row but the 3rd or 4th row, Kazakhstani like to be in the back. So the cashier, who, screen notwithstanding, still tries to tell you where to sit, is always saying “How about the 10th row?” and if you say it’s too far away then suggests the 9th row. Just one of those quirks. They always stare at me in amazement when I say I want the 2nd or 3rd row and try to explain to me that the 8th row is still free.

For those of you who are planning to go to the cinema in Kazakhstan, you should be aware that movies are not usually subtitled; they are dubbed into Russian. So if you don’t speak Russian, you are out of luck. Also it is not unusual for people to arrive late to the film or for them to leave their cellphones on during the movie. People also answer their cellphones and conduct business right there in the cinema as if I just paid $7 to listen to them. It’s not unheard of for audiences to comment on the movie constantly or to talk about something completely different. And my favorite was the guy who used his cellphone to look the movie up on the Internet and explain to his girlfriend (and half the theater) what was about to happen, who all the people were, and even who the actors were and where they knew them from.

Now, you can block a lot of that out–though I do wish people would shade their mobile screens because the bright little lights are distracting–so it’s not as bad as it sounds. However, it is strange for a Western theater-goer used to silence. And no, asking people to be quiet doesn’t help, nor will the usher come and shush people.

On the opposite note, my dear Kazakh friends, please note that if you talk during a movie in the US, you will be glared at, yelled at, and possibly removed from the theater. Unless the movie is really, really bad and the whole audience starts shouting at the screen and cracking jokes–as in a wonderful showing of an awful horror movie I saw many summers ago in Boston. Unfortunately that kind of communal fun rarely occurs either in the US or in Kazakhstan.

I thought it was a great movie, definitely one of the best to come out of independent Kazakhstan. However it was not what I expected. In earlier posts I had given the impression that it was a roll in the aisles comedy. Looking back on reviews I read, I’m not sure where I got that idea. It has some funny moments and it’s lighthearted–especially compared to a lot of Kazakh films which tend to be heavy handed and dramatic. But it also has some dramatic touches and the overall story of a sailor from Russia trying to fit in on the steppe is touching. Particularly his attempts to seduce the only women who lives anywhere near him, Tulpan.

Most interestingly, the film shows life in the steppe of Karaganda in modern times. The main characters live in a yurt in the middle of nowhere. Literally, there’s no one else around. They herd sheep, and during the movie they are suffering from a plague of still-borns. There’s one one truck that serves the entire steppes to bring feed or fertilizer or goods-and it’s a jerry-rigged tractor that keeps breaking down. They are certainly not well off. Yet they are not portrayed either as pitiful or as noble in their suffering. In fact they don’t appear to be suffer. It’s a very straightforward look at real life that few films outside of documentaries can achieve. In fact, most documentaries don’t manage to show their subjects this directly and unbiasedly.

Another wonderful facet of the direction is the way the camera doesn’t always focus directly on the main subject. There’s a great scene of a veterinarian examining another still-born and talking to someone who keeps following him. Eventually the camera pans out and we see a camel screaming at him. In this way, you feel you are in the scene, because you don’t have an omniscient point of view. This technique of keeping something off camera is also used to great comedic or dramatic effect in some scenes.

That being said, some might be put off by the lack of plot. There is a plot of sorts but the film is not driven by it. One result of this is that there are many scenes of the family in the yurt, doing very little and certainly not moving the plot forward or entertaining the viewer in some way. However it’s an effective device once again to show what life is really like on the steppes of Kazakhstan. There’s a wonderful series of recurring devices–a little girl singing, a boy listening to the radio–that again make the audience feel present in the moment.

In short, I highly recommend getting Tulpan and checking it out!

Just an interesting article I came across the other day, Nazarbayev tries to set an example by personally taking an interest in Kazakhstani films [RU]. The President plans to visit movie theaters and watch Kazakh movies in order to encourage other people to follow his example. He says that because he is president, people tend to do what he does. For example, he was the first to ski at Skimbulak and the first to play tennis, making both activities popular. It would sound a bit egotistical if it wasn’t true that many civil servants and powerbrokers in Kazakhstan do try to follow his example in an attempt to curry his favor.

The President recommended that filmmakers create more films about the history of modern indepenedent Kazakhstan, citing the new capital, the chairmanship of the OSCE, the Islamic Conference and the Asian Winter Games of 2011, among the “dramas, loves and tragedies” of the 18 years of independence.

I agree that Kazakhstan needs to make more films. I like some of the films that have come out of Kazakhstan or been done with Kazakh participation like Nomads and Mongol. Schizo was an excellent film and Racketeer, while not a great movie, shows some potential. I look forward to watching the director’s most recent film (Brothers?). I just ordered Tulpan from Amazon.com and look forward to watching that.

But the fact is that there is a long way to go for Kazakh filmmakers. There have been some flops like Kek which was badly filmed, badly acted and difficult to follow. Birzhan Sal was well-acted and filmed not badly but it felt like it had no story. It just kind of drifted until he died. A number of Kazakh films have a sort of slow, drifting feel to them as opposed to a plot-driven or character-driven movie, which tends to turn me off. Now, this may just be an aesthetic difference of opinion. But some films really do show an objective lack of production values with bad cinematography, contradictory plot points, or confusing changes of scene.

Also, recently a member of Parliament declared that movies like Tulpan and Kelin shame the country by showing poor people who do not live in Western standards. I remember the same criticism being leveled at Schizo when it came out. Kairat Champion, a comedy about a man trying to win back his lover who has gone lesbian, sounds hilarious but has also received a fair amount of criticism as being immoral because it features a gay character. But if American filmmakers tried to make films that were only flattering to the US, we would never have films that are so popular in the former USSR like, “Gone With the Wind” or “Once Upon a Time in America”. Stars like Jim Carrey and Rowan Atkinson (who is British and plays Mr. Bean, of course) would be fired for making people think their compatriots are idiots! To let great films in Kazakhstan flourish, the authorities need to lay off on the moral criticism and let the artists work freely.

Another issue is that award-winning films like Tulpan aren’t even available on DVD in Kazakhstan. Nor are there commercials on TV about these films. I tend to hear about a new film, months after it has come out from a friend or colleague. Plus the theaters only show films for a week or two, so if you aren’t watching for a film, you’ll miss it. Theaters need to show movies for longer and advertise more in order to get people in. And Kazakh people need to be able to buy Kazakh films on DVD (or video or Blue Ray). Film making is a business and I don’t understand why there are habits or policies in place that limit sales.

So dear reader, what is your favorite Kazakhstani film? What should I be watching. I did post on this before and note down the answers but then sadly in the transition I lost my comments.

By Lucky21842, via Chris.
As the comments on his YouTube video page say, this is done tongue-in-cheek!

On a related note, I’ve been trying to watch as many Kazakh films as I can. I’ve seen Nomad, which I did quite enjoy though I thought it could be better. Racketeer was a decent film that had some great moments. The idea was great but the acting was often stilted and overall it felt like they phoned it in, an impression that was reinforced when the writer/director said he decided to make a gangster movie because that kind of movie sold well. I hear he has a new movie out now, and I would go see it on the strength of the potential I saw in Racketeer. I bought a copy of Gift for Stalin, but I haven’t been in the mood to watch a depressing film since I bought it, so I have yet to see it. Kek was disappointing. Depressing, bad acting, unclear plot and an unsatisfying ending. What else am I missing? What’s your favorite Kazakh movie? What should I watch next?

Here’s the latest video, taken in Panfilov Park:

Thanks to a friend for pointing out this song, Freestyler by the Bomfunk MCs:

The judges, a well-known Kazakh actor/gameshow host/spokesperson and a famous Kazakh estrada singer, were clearly amused, if intrigued. If not for the magic of YouTube, this might have been the end of the saga. But someone put this guy on YouTube, it is unclear which freestailo video is the original. And it got remixed, put behind video of Borat dancing, mashed up with the techno songs people believed he was imitating. One of the better remixes is here for your viewing pleasure, with scenes of jumpstyle dancing:

At some point, it got picked up by a Kazakh band, R. Lizer, who added words in Kazakh to make a full song, and the video was passed around Kazakhstan from cellphone to cellphone (which is the rural Kazakh substitute for You Tube). Evenutally the clip made it onto Khabar TV, the official channel of the Administration of the President!

It also got remixed by Sound Brothers and Klubbshakers (download the MP3) and is I understand playing in discos and clubs all through Europe. You can even get the music transposed for guitar here and anyone who has ever touched a dombro will be able to easily translate it back for dombro.

So has this poor guy, apparently from a remote part of Kazakhstan, seen a penny for his fame? For the millions of views of YouTube his videos and remixes have gotten? He certainly knows about his fame because he got invited back for the final concert of the Superstar KZ 2007 season, where he really did freestyle, sans dombro:

They certainly gave him a more stylish wardrobe and hair cut. Hopefully he’s somewhere recording the new Freestylo style album. Which is to say, techno played on Kazakh traditional instruments. Based on the comments on YouTube, he’s popular around the world and doing a lot to erase the memory of Borat!

Anyone with any information on this song, this guy, please feel free to post in the comments. I’d love to clear up the mysteries of how he got on YouTube, how R. Lizer picked it up, and where he is now. And also whether the preferred spellling is Freestylo or Freestailo

Borat’s Repentance Part I
Borat’s Repentance Part II
Borat’s Repentance Part III

The film is pretty well made even though the quality on You Tube is a bit low. The two main actors are great (Where did they find Americans?). Parts of the film feel a bit like a propaganda piece, showing off that Kazakhstan is very developed and featuring a stupid naive American. It is also pretty clearly an advertisement for Kuralai, a Kazakh designer, c.f. this event. But it does a pretty good job of mixing the jokes and the pro-Kazakhstan propaganda. And there are a few shots at Kazakhstan’s lack of development too. And it does hit on some of the rudeness one encounters here with our poor heroes being kicked out of stores, attacked by rabid children and ripped off by taxi drivers!

That being said, I think it’s good for Kazakhstan that filmmakers have the resources to make products and get them seen without having to go through official channels because frankly there aren’t a lot of movie production companies here or financial resources. So low-budget, self-produced is definitely the way to go and hopefully kzscreenwriter and others can find a way to make money at this. It just might bring about a renaissance of Kazakh films.

By the way, if kzscreenwriter is reading this, or any other film makers in Kazakhstan are interested, email me or leave a comment. I’d love to do interviews with you and/or publish something about film making in Kazakhstan.