KZBlog

On the occasion of the release of the international trailer of Nomad:

I bring you my story of The Nomads.

The Book

The Nomads was written by Ilyas Yesenberlin (1915 – 1983) in Kazakh. He wrote a lot of historical fiction about the history of Kazakhstan including a trilogy of books, “The Golden Horde,” about Chyngis Khan. In 2000, The Nomads was translated into English by the Ilyas Yesenberlin Foundation and with funding from Exxon. It can be found all over Kazakhstan, at every tourist kiosk and book shop, in Russian, English and Kazakh. It can also be found on E-bay as a websearch for the author’s name will quickly reveal.

Other works by Ilyas Yesenberlin, including his trilogy about Chyngis Khan and the forming of the Golden Horde, can be read in Russian online here.
The Nomads in Kazakh, Russian and English can be downloaded off of this site, which also contains other Kazakh texts and language learning texts. I have no idea of the legality of these websites, so it’s at your own risk.

The Nomads is the dramatized story of the history of how the Kazakh nation became the Kazakh nation, starting from how Zhanybek in the late 15th century, united the nomadic tribes living on the steppes against Abulkhair Khan, the heir of Timurlane and Chyngis Khan as ruler of the Golden Horde, but who as he has grown old, has fallen in love with creature comforts of the urban cities, become more Muslim, and less in touch with the people he rules over. Not to mention that he was an outsider, Uzbek more than Kazakh. From this first step, creating a tribal confederation of Kazakhs, for Kazakhs and by Kazakhs, threats continue come from many sides including internal splits and external threats. One of the longest standing struggles for the Kazakhs, still remembered today, was that against the Dzhungars, more Mongol than Turk, living in what is now the Xinjiang Province of China (more or less). Taraz, a city on the steppes that benefits from the flourishing Silk Road civilizations to the south, with their prosperity and cultural and intellectual resources, as well as the innovation and freedoms of the nomadic peoples, was a particular point of war (in Kazakhstani history, this area was always being claimed by at least two different sides). Abyl Mansur (1711-1781) the son of the Sultan, Orali and descendant of Zhanybek, is trained by the great warrior Oraz, who had already played his part in the history of Kazakhstan. Abyl Mansur manages to unite the tribes again to come to the defense of Taraz, once again bringing a sense of unity to a widely disparate and diverse tribal culture. A reknowned батыр or warrior, later, he was named Khan of the Middle Horde and finally became the famous Ablai Khan, when in 1771 he was elected Khan of all three Hordes, thus definitively uniting the Kazakhs into what is more or less modern day Kazakhstan, though he was eventually forced to submit to the Chinese Emperor and the Russian Tzar.

The novel goes all the way to the 19th century and the time of Kenesary Khan’s revolt against the Russians. The book is an epic of 400 years with war, intrigue, betrayl, love, poetry (including a wonderful description of an айтыс, a contest between bards, over the direction the horde should take). In other words, all the good stuff that an epic should have. It seems fairly historically accurate in so far as, when I read the history of Kazakhstan, it is recognizable from The Nomads (and vice versa). The English translation is not perfect, and takes some getting used to. The beginning is a bit slow, obsessed as it is with introducing Kazakh/Mongol terms, locations and cultures. Elsewhere, the author seems to assume the reader knows everything and skips over what would be useful background information. Overall, it’s a must read to get the shape of Kazakh history in an entertaining form (and in English—which is hard to come by). Plus you find out who all the streets are named after, and who all the people on the statues are.

The Film

The move is based on one part of the book, the young Mansur’s war against the Dzhungars. This choice was likely made because the war against the Dzhungars still exists in recent memory and the Dzhungars as a people still exist to this day in western China and Kazakhstan, not to mention their descendants/cousins the Uighurs. In fact, this Muslim tribe won the right to live in China for their part in defending China against the Kazakhs, about the same time the Tibetans were throwing them out of Buddhist Tibet.

The film tells the story of the great and mysterious (and likely fictitious) warrior Oraz (played by Chinese-American actor Jason Scott Lee)who prophesizes that a leader will rise to defeat the Dzhungars. He convinces the Sultan of Taraz to give him his son to raise in secret with other children so that the Dzhungars do not kill him. Abyl Mansur (played by Mexican actor Kuno Becker) grows up to unite Kazakh tribes to defend Taraz and the Southern Kazakh sultanate, in the name of Kazakhstan!

There was a lot of anticipation surrounding the film. Filming started in 2003 but budget and weather concerns closed it down, production teams kept changing, and rumors flew around about the influence of the President, the author’s estate, the historical and literary academy, Hollywood. We kept waiting and waiting. The book was well-known and well-loved. Many people wanted to see Kazakhstan history put to the screen with modern special effects, to make it exciting for young people. There is also a feeling of loss here for many. The Soviet Union, afraid of ethnic revolutions, suppressed Kazakh culture and study of Kazakh history. Since independence, the new nation has had to walk a fine line between reclaiming its Kazakh past and not alienating Russians, Germans, Ukrainians and other Kazakhstani populations.

And yes, there was popular support and enthusiasm for a film about Kazakhs to be shown world-wide. A quick review of the IMDB message boards shows ordinary Kazakhs, students in the US and England, movie buffs, and teenagers excited about the idea that the West will see what it means to be Kazakh. The nationalism entwined with the film is not entirely generated from above, as part of a well-funded, politically motivated attempt to advertise Kazakhstan and promote oil investment. It’s also a desire of the people. Heck, I want my friends and family to see it and love it. And the nationalism is also directed at the Kazakhs themselves, to raise their spirit, to remind them of what it means to be Kazakh, the blood and sweat that brought them to where they are now.

The Release

The movie was first shown on the 6th of July 2005 on the birthday of the President. It was shown twice, first to the President and other high government officials. That evening they had a session for the staff of the Office of the President. We all thought it would be publicly released the next week. It wasn’t. There was a film festival in Almaty shortly thereafter and rumors ran amok: it will be shown, it won’t be shown, the President hated it and cancelled the whole thing, the President loved it. The elections are coming; they’re probably waiting until closer to Election Day. Maybe they were waiting for Cannes. I checked Kino.kz obsessively. One night in Almaty, one night in Aktobe. When would it come to Astana?

Finally, one Saturday in the fall, I was at work when my fiancée called. It was being shown that night. I ran the five blocks to the movie theater and saw the longest line I have ever seen at Cinema City. And the line moved so slowly. People were chatting amongst themselves, yelling at the jerks at the window calling on their cell phones to friends:

“Ay, Erke, will you come? How many tickets? Will Azamat come? OK I’ll call him…Eh, Azake, are you coming to Nomads, oh please, come, come, yeah, it’s really playing, I’m at the theater now!”
“Shut the hell up and buy your damn tickets!”

We were panicked it would sell out, we heard it had sold out, they were only selling tickets for the next day, no it wasn’t even going to be shown the next day, or ever again. We sent runners to the front of the line to ask the cashier, slowing the process down even further.

As I was standing in line, a friend of a friend greeted me and we chatted. Then he asked, “Do you need tickets?” I said yes, and he asked how many. I assumed he was scalping. Then he went over and talked to the manager and I thought he was going to get me arrested, entrapment! But he came back and signaled for me to get out of the line. I secured my place with the babushka behind me and walked with him to the coat check girl. They were selling tickets for the late show, in the front row (the least desirable row in Kazakhstan, for some reason, and thus tickets there are cheaper than in the back). I bought two at the same price I would have paid at the ticket window—and prayed they weren’t fake. My fiancée would have killed me if they were fake.

They weren’t. We sat down and the theater went black; we waited excitedly through the ads for vodka and cigarettes. Then a big quote by Nazarbayev in Kazakh, and people began applauding. I don’t want to spoil the film, but there were two nice scenes that really captured the spirit of the nationalism, and which got applause from the whole theater.

There’s a great scene (reminiscent of the hockey film, Miracle) where Mansur and the other children being trained by Oraz are lined up and he asks them, “Who are you and where are you from?”
One answers, “I am Koblondir. I am of the Argun tribe!”
A second one, “I am Aspandiyar. I am Dolat!”
Mansur answers, “I am Abyl Mansur! I am KAZAKH!!!!!!!!!”
It sounds cheesy, but it was a nice little touch and it got the audience to their feet with yelling and clapping.

At the end of the movie, in a cute little epilogue, a Kazakh warrior rides up to the Dzhungar Khan’s chariot, after their army has been routed. He shows him a globe—“an invention of Ulighbek,” and says, “This land here is not to be touched by you. This is the border, and this here, is KAZAKHSTAN!!!” Again, a nice little touch, and again the audience loved it! I swear Jason Scott Lee heard the applause from California.

Look, the movie got politicized, and it isn’t the greatest film ever made, but really the second reason for this post is that it’s a great epic film. I loved it. You should go see it!