They are behind the scenes, but thanks to them the world sees new movies in the film industry. Directing is no longer considered a male profession. Kazakh women break stereotypes and set an example of what heights can be reached. One of them is Alina Mustafina, a talented aspiring film director. She graduated from the best schools in the United States and Spain. She won the Best Documentary Award for the film “Ander” at the last film festival in Qatar.
“I made a short film named “Rescue Masha”, which won at the Indonesian film festival, participated at a film festival in Istanbul, in various other cities, including Moscow and Almaty. After that, I made a documentary film, which I named after my son “Ander”. It is about food allergies of my child, about how we live with it. It is short and lasts for 15 minutes. It tells what a five-year-old child thinks when he or she is not allowed to eat something,” said Alina Mustafina, film director.
Another Kazakh woman Qarlyga Hasen managed to represent Kazakhstan abroad. Her debut short film “The Little Prince” was successfully presented last year at international film festivals in Turkey, Colombia, Thailand and Bangladesh. The movie tells about the life and thoughts of Kazakh poet Tanakoz Tolkynkyzy in monologue manner. It took about a week to shoot the film in Germany and mainly in France.
“I really wanted, first of all, to show the soul of the poet, her philosophical view of life, her thoughts, as a creative person, as a woman. I just wanted to capture her thoughts. “The Little Prince” in Kazakh language sounds like “Kishkentai Khanzada”. After filming, we realized that in fact Tanakoz was also to some extent a little prince. We also traveled, shared philosophical views about life, talked about the meaning of life, searched for some truth, searched for ourselves. My heroine is also looking for herself,” said Qarlyga Hasen, film director.
The film directors plan to further realize own abilities as well as receive recognition of viewers, shooting movies about the most important things – life, love and the motherland.
