Documentary about Jochi Khan screened in Astana

The documentary was made by well-known journalist and producer Maya Bekbayeva, with the support of the TV and Radio Complex of the President of Kazakhstan.

According to Maya Bekbayeva, the film is not a commercial project and it was shot primarily for a younger generation, and was released ahead of the spring vacation. 

“We hope that both parents and children will be able to more deeply understand and realize the history of our nation,” she said adding that the “Kazakh Khanate did not arise from scratch, behind its creation is the history of the Golden Horde.”

Maya Bekbayeva is also the author of the film soundtrack.

“The film will be spread via social media and other platforms. For this reason, I decided to shoot it in the Russian language to unite post-Soviet countries and make it easy-to-understand by a wider audience. I chose the Russian language, so that every viewer would not have questions regarding our statehood,” she explained. 

The film was shot in Astana and its neighborhood and will be screened at all cinemas of Kazakhstan.

Askar Dzhaldinov, Deputy Director of the Kazakh President’s TV and Radio Complex, expressed confidence that the documentary will become a good present for schoolchildren, especially in the vacation period.

“Jochi Khan’s contribution to our history is unique. In 1950s, the history of the Golden Horde and Jochi Khan himself was not discussed a lot, and much remained in the shadows. The state is currently filling these gaps,” said he and thanked Maya Bekbayeva and her team for their invaluable work and enormous contribution to the development of Kazakhstan’s film industry.

Prominent persons, historians and public activists attended the event.

On top of that, a book by Maya Bekbayeva “Jochi Khan. The Ruler of the Great Ulus,” was presented during the event.

“Exploring the history of Jochi Khan is an important historic example, which underlay the formation of today’s independent Kazakhstan. All this became possible due to heroic spirit of our ancestors. In 1944, the Soviet Union passed a resolution banning any Turkic history studies, as a result of which, the Kazakh nation lost its real and deep history. We still see the consequences of this decision, because the independent history of the Kazakh people has not been fully studied yet. So, this initiative is quite timely,” Director of the Alash Research Institute Sultankhan Akkululy said.