In this episode of Voices From Central Asia, Kazakh filmmaker Alisher Utev discusses his journey to combine artistic realism with national stories to inspire young creators and promote Kazakh cinema on a global scale.
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00:00My ambition is at a high level, you know. I want to win an Oscar, come to Kazakhstan and show the young generation that everything is possible.
00:09Nothing is impossible. You can do anything.
00:13I had a very serious head injury. The sergeant, my brother, and I had to go to the hospital.
00:23It's all started about 14 or 15 years ago when I was a third or fourth year student, you know.
00:38In that time I realized that I can write a good script, short stories, something like this.
00:46So that time I realized that I can do something more than sketches or short stories.
00:52So then my eldest brother from industry invited me to TV.
00:59So I think in that time I started my professional career.
01:05Master Alfred Hitchcock, he said once that three important things make the movie great.
01:15First thing is script, second thing is script, and third one is also script.
01:24So that's why the young directors, my advice is always write your scripts, always pay attention to this part,
01:37because it's one of the most important things in filmmaking.
01:43I think my style is artistic realism.
01:49When you're watching a movie or a film, you see that it's real, but a little bit of realism is also what you see in my films.
02:01Because all the stories, all the scripts, the stories are about Kazakh people, about Kazakh problems.
02:13This story is in Kazakhstan, so that's why this is very important for me.
02:19I want to make films, national films, which could be international to the other world, you know.
02:29We're a unique country where we have mountains, where we have sea, where we have great powerful steppe, you know, forests, something like this.
02:43If you want, you find everything in our country.
02:46So that's why I think Kazakhstan will be popular when the industry will grow up in our country.
02:53Now we are on my film set, which is called Dester.
02:57Dester means tradition in English.
03:01This is the second part of one of the most high-grossing box office films in our country.
03:10So this is the second part.
03:12The genre of this film is horror.
03:15I think always my last films or series are always rewarding, you know.
03:22I always put my 100 percent, my energy to the project.
03:29And always God gives me everything, so 100 percent pure energy.
03:38The last project was 1286 series.
03:44He won the Busan festival.
03:46So that's why now it's 1286.
03:51But I think the last my film will be also rewarding, very big.
03:58I think big wins are coming.
04:00I believe I can influence the industry, our industry, local industry, by doing interesting films and series.
04:10This is the only way how to invite people to watch our movies and films.
04:16I can't say exactly what I love in this filmmaking.
04:25In one word, I would say that's magic, you know.
04:28All the time I want to quit from this hard-working industry.
04:33We are in Kazakhstan with the low-budget projects.
04:39All my films and series were a challenge to me.
04:44Very big challenge, you know.
04:46I always say that this film is the last film then I quit.
04:51But always this magic always works again.
04:54And I wanted to create something new.