Film critic on state’s “incredible” lack of interest in supporting film industry

12.12.2023, 16:47 exclusive.kz

Film critic Gulnara Abikeyeva talks to Exclusive.kz about the lack of transparency in the government’s efforts to support the national film industry as the number of films funded by the state drops and Kazakhstan stops holding film festivals.

Q — Almaty is undoubtedly Kazakhstan’s film-making centre. Why is the State Centre for Supporting National Cinema is being moved to Astana?

A — It is being done to protect it from criticism by filmmakers, most of whom are based in Almaty. They often protest, argue or criticise about this and that. Only five percent of those involved in the film industry are based in Astana.

In any case, the role of the SCSNC has been diminishing by the year. Soon it will become minimal, and the institution might be closed altogether.

Whereas last year it supported 42 films, this year they have picked only 19 films for state funding. I take it as a demonstration of incredible lack of interest in developing and promoting national cinema.

We are back in the time when the state used to support only projects that it deemed super-important for its own image. Why spend 2bn tenge on a historical film when the same amount could be used to make 10 good modern films?

The Centre has not been totally useless, however. Of course, it did contribute to the emergence of a great number of good quality films in recent years.

However, now they are doing everything they can to prevent filmmakers from taking part in the decision-making process – maybe they do not want them to know about the behind-the-scenes stuff going on at the Centre.

It may look like decisions about funding films are made in an open way, but the final decision is always taken behind closed doors.

We have a strange situation – the state is ready to fund films, but it has no strategy, does not provide room for open discussion, and does not support festivals and other good projects.

It means that this approach does not work – state funding does not work. In other words, government managers are failing to distribute funding fairly, sensibly and in a timely fashion.

Q — Why has Kazakhstan stopped holding the Almaty and Eurasia film festivals?

A — The country’s leadership seems to think that we do not need film festivals. We are catastrophically losing our cultural image by not holding the Eurasia and Almaty festivals.

We are living in a fast-changing world of information. A film festival is like a forum, it brings together journalists, distributors, and filmmakers.

We have failed to showcase our film industry for four years, and it means that our country is now completely off the radar. It is like admitting that we have nothing to show for ourselves.

It is paradoxical. A great number of Kazakh films have been made in recent years, and we are leading the region in terms of participation in prestigious international film festivals and getting various awards.

By Merey Sugirbayeva