Kazakh independent movie succeeds at Gatchina Festival, showing director's potential
National independent low-budget movies, as it turns out, can also be very successful and appreciated by both professionals and viewers, the press service of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reports.
Mirgalym Yessirkepov's movie "How much land does a man need?" proved the point by winning the best debut prize at the favoured-by-critics Gatchina Film Festival in Russia last month.
The 17th Russian Festival of Literature and Cinema was held on March 10-17, as usual, in a small town of Gatchina, next to St. Petersburg. Film adaptations and films based on literary works, as well as publicist films about the life and work of writers, poets, and filmmakers were shown here.
Yessirkepov's work is based on the story by Leo Tolstoy with the same title.
"The fact is that when you decide to do a film adaptation or make a movie based on literary works, it is always a very responsible endeavour. You always face a question whether the original work is better than the film version or whether the film version is better or at least not worse than the original," Yesserkepov shared with the Tsentr Azii magazine. "Therefore, the Gatchina Festival is special, but it is not oriented toward professionals only. On the contrary, it is a very open viewers' festival. Tickets for shows are always sold out and theatres are always full."
Yessirkepov's movie is an adaptation of Tolstoy's work to modern reality. The issues raised in the story turned out to be relevant more than a hundred years later: greed, people's weakness in front of temptations and their tardy understanding of the simple truth that it is not the land that belongs to the man, but the man that ultimately belongs to the earth.
The film was shown in the Kazakh language with Russian subtitles. After watching it, many viewers came up to the director and thanked him, noting that the movie was understandable even without translation. The jury unanimously recognised it as the most brilliant and remarkable debut, although it had to compete with the works of the well-known directors from other countries.
"Applause and the viewers' praise were probably dearer to me than the prize. I did not expect that the only film in the Kazakh language with subtitles would be so warmly welcomed. I had expected that perhaps some would leave the theatre because few people in Russia are used to reading subtitles while watching a movie," Yessirkepov said.
"And then, I was comparing my work with other films, such as, for example, the "Quiet Gate," which received the audience award in the end, or the Belarusian "Wolves" that later took the Grand Prix. In addition, all submitted films were shot on film and only we had presented a film on the DVD. But no one left and the viewers' applause and comments after the show were very sincere. The film caught the audience and they were amazed that the story written by Leo Tolstoy more than a century ago turns out to be so relevant in the modern adaptation for the situation in the remote Kazakh village and still those sitting in the theatre could relate to everything that happened on the screen," Yessirkepov added.
Professionals expressed a very high opinion of the Kazakh film as well, noting the director's ability to tell the story straight, which added to its credibility. For the leading man, Safuan Shaimerdenov, the film was also a debut. Although he did not receive an official prize, the actor left the festival with many compliments and an informal prize, a nickname of "Central Asian De Niro."