ZILANT Film Festival prize arrives in office of President's TV and Radio Complex

As reported, the film «Why Does the Caspian Seal Die?» shot by the Presidential TV and Radio Complex received an award at the ZILANT International Film Festival held in Tatarstan on February 25-26.

Directed by Akylbek Shalzhanov, the documentary was named the Best Environmental Film.

The film considers the causes of the mass die-off of Caspian seals whose population has sharply declined by 90% in the past 100 years. In 2020, the Caspian seal was included in Kazakhstan’s endangered species list.

This became the first international award for Akylbek Shalzhanov.

«The prize for us is an assessment of our work, first of all. Secondly, we wanted not only to make a documentary, but also to reveal the problem to the people. This is a large film festival gathering almost all CIS states. This award is a merit of the entire team. This is the result of our joint work - author of the script Konstantin Kharlamov, cameramen, employees of the center for the study of seals. Together we conducted a study and tried to answer the question why the Caspian seals are dying. Well, the most important reward for us is the understanding that this problem has touched the audience,» Akylbek Shalzhanov says.

The goal of the festival is to exchange experience and artistic achievements of creative teams from around the world, to create an atmosphere of an unforgettable holiday, as well as to raise intellectual level of children, youth and adults from different countries.