The Story of Kazakh Cinema – Underground of Kazakhfilm

The Plague at the Karatas Village

A new mayor seeks the origins of a mysterious illness that is running rampant throughout a remote village.

Ulbolsyn

Life in Karatas Village runs along an untroubled path, until its patriarchal way of life is challenged by Ulbolsyn, a woman whose coldblooded heart and blazing temperament are not afraid of setting everything on fire.

A Dark, Dark Man

A boy is murdered in Kazakh village. Detective Bekzat wants to wrap up the inquiries quickly: after all, the perpetrator has already been found by local police officers. But when a journalist arrives from the city, everything falls to pieces. For the first time in his career, Bekzat must conduct a real investigation according to procedure.

Ademoka’s Education

Ademoka is a headstrong and gifted 15-year-old girl whose big dream is to study. Her status as Lyuli an illegal immigrant from Tajikistan is a serious obstacle to this. She is exploited by her extended family and forced to beg on the streets, she manages to free herself from the family, when they get deported she has to choose between family and education. She gets helped on the way by some oddball characters, who come to her aid against the corrupt system and the patriarchal family.

Cadet

Single mother Alina tries to enroll her son, Serik, in an elite military academy, but he is bullied by his classmates because of his girlish appearance, and the principal deems him unfit for the school. Alina succeeds in getting Serik reinstated by taking advantage of Serik's father's high military rank. But she is warned by a woman whose son has committed suicide at the school that Serik will follow the same path...

Yellow Cat

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?

Kazakh Scary Tales

A cop ventures into a remote village to investigate a gruesome series of inexplicable events and soon finds himself in the center of an otherworldly storm of local witchcraft and death. It becomes clear that the curse of Albasty, a spirit said to devour infants, is horrifyingly real. Produced as an anthology series, first three episodes premiering at Fantasia Film Festival as a feature film.

The Assault

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.

Steppenwolf

Tamara is searching for her missing son in a small town consumed by riots and violence. In a desperate attempt to get him back, she decides to offer a reward to an amoral former investigator whose methods prove to be sadistic. Determined, Tamara decides to complete the mission with the nihilistic detective, no matter what the cost.

The Owners

25 year-old John, his teenage brother Erbol, and their sickly 12 year-old sister Aliya, are forced to leave their house in the Kazakh city of Almaty. By luck their mother left them a house in a remote village, where they plan to prepare their comeback. But the house appears to be on the wish list of the District Officer’s alcoholic brother, who has lived there illegally for 10 years.

The Gentle Indifference of the World

After her father's untimely death, Saltanat is forced to trade her idyllic countryside life for the cruel city. She has to find money to pay off the large family debt that her father left behind, in order to save her mother from jail. Friends since their village childhood, her loyal, but penniless admirer Kuandyk follows her just to make sure his sweetheart is safe. Saltanat's uncle introduces her to a possible groom, who promises to pay off her family's debts. But Saltanat's hopes are dashed, when she discovers that the men in this city don't keep their word. When Kuandyk tries to help Saltanat get the money through other ways, he ends up finding himself in more trouble than he bargained for. Although life keeps dealing them bad hands, Saltanat and Kuandyk never give up, no matter what the odds.

Herd Immunity

Selkeu Uashev is a local police officer at Karatas village. He’s not a man of high morals and can hardly be called a role model as a policeman. He turns a deaf ear to lots of criminal offences and takes bribes. For that he’s loved a lot by local criminals and frauds. But one day the commission arrives from the city to declare the big audit all over the village due to pandemic…

Frozen

On a snow-covered highway near the northern town of Kostomuksha, police find the frozen corpse of a woman in a frozen car. The victim is the wife of investigator Evgeniy Rudin. The rage that has taken possession of the hero leads him along the path of senseless cruelty, the victims of which can be both innocent people and those close to Rudin. Evgeniy finds unexpected support in the face of a strange boy Mitya. Meanwhile, the killings continue.

Goliath

The Kazakh village Karatas has long been subjugated by a criminal boss called Poshaev. He provides housing and jobs for the locals but will ruthlessly execute anyone who dares to oppose him. This is the lesson the pauper Arzu is about to learn first-hand—his wife Karina has informed the police about the crimes that are taking place there. Arzu is a cripple; now he must raise his little daughter alone. He is so helpless and grief-stricken that he doesn’t even seem to be contemplating revenge. Poshaev takes him under his wing and offers him the position of a guard at a building site. Soon Arzu has a chance to prove his loyalty, and he becomes Poshaev’s right hand. But where do Arzu’s real loyalties lie—with his boss or with the idea of justice?

Hell Grind

The film follows four street thieves. After a botched heist, one of them is transported into an underworld. The others team up with a secret military group and battle demon hordes to save her.

Turgaud

A film about outlaws that breaks the rules of storytelling. A secretive man arrives at the airport—he has a job interview with the leader of a criminal syndicate. He decides to protect the gangster against the threat of a mysterious woman and her child, who want him dead. Violence is inevitable, but it manifests in enigmatic ways.