Ardak Amirkulov

Abai

An epic drama about the life, love and creativity of the Kazakh poet Abai (1845-1904), an educator, thinker and politician of the 19th century.

Qara Bala

In a Kazakh village of the 1930s, Qara Bala is a beloved young man, the pride of his mother and the village. His future is already planned with a bride chosen for him, but everything changes when he falls in love with a married woman — Balgyng. This forbidden love clashes with the harsh realities of traditional society, and Qara Bala must decide between his heart’s desire and the expectations of the community.

The Fall of Otrar

A staggering historical epic about the intrigue and turmoil of the East Asian civilization of Otrar, before its systematic destruction at the hands of Genghis Khan.

Shanghai

People of an old abandoned neighborhood are waiting for the end of their district and a whole Soviet Union as well.

Surgeon

Mels, a middle-aged introvert, works as a surgeon in a provincial town hospital and is one of the best in his field. The gray and boring life of a doctor changes when he meets a mysterious person. She, in his opinion, spiritualized and sublime, in life turns out to be an ordinary girl with her own problems and "skeletons in the closet."

Goodbye, Gulsary!

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.

The Land Where Winds Stood Still

Windy steppes of Kazakhstan. Starving people ravenously eat donkeys and their weaker comrades. Frantic, raw, gripping, and cannibalistic western inspired by testimonies of the historical Great Famine of the 1930s. Ruthless Jupar with her two boys Jolan and Boshay runs for survival to reach her childhood village with hopes to find living relatives. A mother with no tears to cry endures rains, sandstorms, feverish famine, poisoned crops, hungry vultures, rotten meat, and greedy betrayals. Jupar will have to steal, cut throats, and protect her and others’ children to witness fates worse than death.

1997: Rustem's Notes with Drawings

Eighteen-year-old Rustem, unlike his business sister Madina, is lazy and inert, he looks at the world with cold eyes, hiding behind indifference and cruelty to others. Strange girl Miko timidly tries to destroy Rustem's "shell" with a fragile feeling of first love.