The Gift to Stalin

The Gift to Stalin 2008

5.50

A Jewish child deported to Kazakhstan is saved and adopted by Kasym, an old Kazakh railway-man. Kasym gives him a Kazakh name, Sabyr, that in Kazakh language means humble. The child grows up in the small Kazakh village along with other deportees Vera, a traitor's wife, and Ezhik a Polish doctor. The Soviet militia harasses the poor peasants and Vera suffered the harassment of a bully cop: Bulgabi. Finally Vera accepts the marriage proposal of Ezhik but the jealous Bulgabi tries to prevent the marriage. The result is a fight in which Ezhik shoots himself accidentally. The old Kasym decides that Sabyr is now old enough to go to seek his real parents. At the end Sabyr, now an adult, decides to return to the village, but the village no longer exists because it was destroyed by a Soviet nuclear test.

2008

Nomad: The Warrior

Nomad: The Warrior 2005

5.10

The Nomad is a historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan. The film is a fictionalised account of the youth and coming-of-age of Ablai Khan, as he grows and fights to defend the fortress at Hazrat-e Turkestan from Dzungar invaders.

2005

The Legend of Tomiris

The Legend of Tomiris 2019

6.88

This is the story of the life of the great queen of the steppe - legendary Tomiris. She is destined to become a skillful warrior, survive the loss of close people and unite the Scythian/Saka tribes under her authority.

2019

Yellow Cat

Yellow Cat 2020

6.00

Ex-con Kermek and his beloved Eva want to leave their crime-infested lives on the Kazakh steppes behind. He has a dream: building a movie theater in the mountains. Will Kermek's love of Alain Delon be strong enough to keep them out of the violent clutches of the mafia?

2020

Corn Island

Corn Island 2014

7.28

The Inguri River forms a natural border dividing Georgia from Abkhazia. One of the spring floods has created a little island in the middle of the river, as if made for the cultivation of corn. At least, this is the belief of an old peasant, whose sunburned face resembles the landscape he has trodden for dozens of years.

2014

Test

Test 2014

6.60

Set in 1949 on a remote farm near a nuclear testing site, Dina is living a quiet, unremarkable life with her father until two suitors enter her life.

2014

The Stars Have Aligned

The Stars Have Aligned 2016

1

An English correspondent arrives in Astana to interview the named Leader of the Nation Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev is hosting an English guest. The interview turns into Nazarbayev's story about life, fate and the difficult path of gaining independence. The President introduces the writer to local customs, at the same time telling about the most difficult periods of his life, from his appointment in 1984 as chairman of the Council of Ministers to becoming President of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 1991.

2016

Kazakh Khanate: Diamond Sword

Kazakh Khanate: Diamond Sword 2017

4.00

Set in the 15th century, the story follows the formation of the Kazakh state after the death of Genghis Khan and the usurpation of power by one of Khan's descendants, leading the sultans Kerei and Janibek to resort to some nomadic tribes to remove the usurper, hoping for a better life and freedom.

2017

Kazakh Khanate: The Golden Throne

Kazakh Khanate: The Golden Throne 2019

5.00

XV century. In the vast expanses of Eurasia, the descendants of Genghis Khan create their own state. The promised land of Kazakh Khanate is resisting its enemies..

2019

Schizo

Schizo 2004

5.50

Fifteen year old Mustafa has a nickname Schizo. He is hired by his mother’s boyfriend to find fighters for illegal fistfights. His life is changed forever when a young man mortally beaten in one of the fights asks Schizo to deliver his prize money to his girlfriend and young son. Schizo takes the money to the woman as promised and falls in love with her. Now he knows for whom he has to make money, no matter what the cost. In fistfights there are no rules… until blood is spilled!

2004

Amanat

Amanat 2016

6.00

A story that spans three periods in Kazakh history, it links mid 19th century struggles against the Russians to two 20th century episodes revolving around the fate of former political prisoner Ermukhan Bekmakhanov, who was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for writing historical books about Kazakh national hero Kenesary Kasymov and his national liberation movement.

2016

The Return to A

The Return to A 2011

6.60

This movie is about the life of Marat Ayumov, a former soldier from Kazakhstan who fought in Afghaninstan. The past and present are interwoven in the memories of the protagonist. Throughout the film, in fragmented flashbacks, the hero recollects the time when he, as a soldier, fought in the armed conflict in the mountainous country as he travels to Afghanistan to accompany a young and creative TV crew making a documentary called “Following Alexander the Great”.

2011

The Liquidator

The Liquidator 2011

4.60

A highly skilled bodyguard avenging his brother's untimely death uncovers a ring of corruption extending to the highest levels of society and government.

2011

The Assault

The Assault 2022

6.90

Masked figures with machine guns march into the secondary school in Karatas, take the pupils hostage, and execute one of them. They make no demands. Silent terror is their modus operandi. Seeing as the army will take two days to arrive due to a snowstorm, maths teacher Tazshi decides to assemble his own assault team: his ex-wife, the gym teacher, the cowardly school principal, an alcoholic night watchman, the village idiot, and an incompetent chief of police.

2022

Harmony Lessons

Harmony Lessons 2013

7.20

During a medical examination, 13-year-old Aslan is humiliated in front of a load of his fellow pupils. The incident unleashes his latent personality disorder. Plagued by self-doubt, he strives for cleanliness and perfection and is obsessed with trying to control everything around him. His compulsion draws Aslan, who lives with his grandmother in a village in Kazakhstan, into increasingly difficult situations. He abhors the way most of his fellow pupils are held in the sway of a criminal scheme, in which Bolat, one of Aslan’s tormentors, is also involved. Bolat blackmails the younger children into paying him protection money; he has nothing but contempt for ostracised Aslan.

2013

The Needle Remix

The Needle Remix 2010

3.60

Remix of the 1988 cult movie "The Needle": Moro returns to Alma Ata to collect money owed to him. While waiting out an unexpected delay, he visits his former girlfriend Dina, and discovers she has become a morphine addict. He decides to help her kick the habit and to fight the local drug mafia responsible for her condition. But Moro finds a deadly opponent in "the doctor," the mafia kingpin who is exploiting Dina.

2010

Waiting for the Sea

Waiting for the Sea 2012

5.40

Sailor Marat carries a great burden. His whole village condemns him since his wife and many fishermen were washed off his boat in a mysterious sea storm. Ever since then the sea has vanished. One day, Marat returns to his village, obsessed by the idea of making the sea return and so the dead. He begins rebuilding his shipwreck in the middle of the desert, dragging it towards the endless horizon. Only his last close friend Balthasar, and Tamara, the sister of Marat's deceased wife, believe in him. Tamara, deeply in love with Marat, who repulses her, knows from a fortune teller that maybe not her dream but his might come true. One morning Marat wakes up by the sound of water - the sea has returned, ready to take what belongs to her...

2012

Native Dancer

Native Dancer 2008

3.40

Aidai the baksy, or witch doctor, lives in the mountains and helps people. She uses mysterious actions to cure the sick and to give infertile couples children. As capitalist forces begin to encroach on tradition, the first casualty is any culture's most fundamental inheritance - land. The healer has to leave her land because the mob thinks the location is suitable for a filling station. A harsh battle between supernatural good and earthly evil ensues.

2008

A Friend of the Deceased

A Friend of the Deceased 1997

4.60

Tolla is an unemployed translator whose wife is leaving him. Despondent and weak, he submits to the suggestion of an acquaintance to have a contract placed on the man that his wife is seeing. Instead, however, he arranges for the hit to be placed on himself. Before the contract is executed, he develops a relationship with a prostitute, and then changes his mind. In order to survive he takes the obvious course of action, which turns out to have possibly been unnecessary, and then he must deal with the guilt.

1997

Tale of a Pink Hare

Tale of a Pink Hare 2010

7.50

Provincial guy Yerlan is a 3rd—year student of one of the Almaty universities. He came to the city hoping to succeed in the future. However, the environment of the golden youth, where he got, turned out to be difficult. It has its own laws, its own rules, and in order to preserve its moral principles, many things will have to be relived and experienced.

2010