KZBlog

Tag archive for ‘Movies’

• Fut-Fut-Fut-Freestailo

  How did I miss this? About one year ago, in December of 2007, during the Superstar KZ (Kazakhstan’s version of American Idol or Pop Idol) auditions a guy came on clearly from the villages with a cheap sweater and a bad haircut. He was holding a dombro and the judges perhaps expected a typical Kazakh […]

  1/15/09 • (21)

• Borat’s Repentance

  Got notified of this by a commenter on my post Borat is Good for Kazakhstan. A film maker, kzscreenwriter in Kazakhstan has made a film called Borat’s Repentance that traces what happens when the President of the Borat fan club comes to Kazakhstan to apologize and discovers that Kazakhstan is a civilized and developed country. […]

  11/16/08 • (5)

• Movie Tickets Wanted

  Go see Wanted [Особо Опасен in Russian] which opened on June 27th in the US and on June 26th in Kazakhstan. Why am I talking about this film and why did it open in Kazakhstan before it opened in the US? Because the director, Timur Bekmambetov is a native son of Kazakhstan, born in Atyrau. […]

  6/22/08 • (Comments Off on Movie Tickets Wanted)

• Mongol Nomination and Kazakh Pride

  The New York Times has a nice article up on how Kazakhstan feels about Mongol‘s nomination. There’s a little confusion here–the NYT doesn’t seem to realize that Sergei Bodrov, the director and co-writer, is Russian. Nonetheless there’s great content here about Kazkahstan’s film industry and national pride. And of course we all have our fingers […]

  2/24/08 • (Comments Off on Mongol Nomination and Kazakh Pride)

• 

  Film Review: Mongol

  On Sept. 22nd, Mongol, the historical epic about Chinghis Khan (Genghis Khan) opened in Astana. The film has been anticipated since Sergei Bodrov began filming it right after the release of Nomad. Bodrov is well-known as the director of Nomad, as well as co-writer on Schizo and East-West, among his other extensive producing, directing and […]

  10/13/07 • (1)

• On the lighter side

  I finally saw the Borat movie–a pirate edition was handed to me in a smoky cafe, in plain white paper, the discs enscribed “We <3 Kazakhstan” like it was samizdat in Soviet times. So no money from the Kazakhstan economy went to Mr. Cohen from me, unlike some other non-patriots who pushed Borat to number […]

  3/11/07 • (Comments Off on On the lighter side)

• Image

  Sean Roberts has an article up about nation branding and (inevitably) Borat. Upon the occasion of yet another big paid article in the Washington Post, Who Needs Borat? Here’s the Kazakh President, highlighting the President’s new devil may care attitude to the comedian (which itself did not emerge until after Sascha Baron Cohen did an […]

  12/20/06 • (Comments Off on Image)

• Sound effects in Nomads

  Rob Nokes, the sound supervisor editor for the film Nomad, has a video up of his experiences recording sounds for the film. Interesting stuff and this guy is experienced enough. It appears he will do a larger “Making of Nomads” feature, according to the blurb on Youtube.

  10/27/06 • (Comments Off on Sound effects in Nomads)

• Borat videos

  Two Borat-related videos came to my attention. Chris Merriman has put up the BBC coverage of the London premiere of Borat’s film, with discussion of the uproar, Aliyev’s invitation, and his insistence on remaining in character. Second, the first four minutes of the Borat film, the bit set in Kazakhstan: It’s not particularly funny to […]

  10/26/06 • (Comments Off on Borat videos)

• Cars in Almaty

  Thanks to Leila’s post on neweuraisa.net, I bring you: Cars in Almaty Leila laid out some of the serious problems with transport in Kazakhstan, including traffic, saftey and cars as economic indicators. Coupled with the previous post on neweurasia about income versus rising costs, it makes for a good indication of the situation. What percent […]

  10/04/06 • (Comments Off on Cars in Almaty)

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