Kazakh Film 'Mugalim' Debuts at San Sebastián New Directors — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- "Mugalim" world premiered at San Sebastián Film Festival's New Directors section on Sept. 20, directed and co-written by Ayana Nurdinova and produced by Art East Films, starring Oljas Dalelkhan, Rustem Zhanyamanov and others.
- The film follows a music teacher from the lakeside town of Balkhash who dreams of performing at the philharmonic in the big city, torn between that ambition and leaving his family and students behind.
- Director Nurdinova called "Mugalim" "semi-autobiographical," drawing on her mother — an English teacher of more than 30 years — and on her own childhood in Taldykorgan in southeastern Kazakhstan.
- A protest scene in the film ties directly to Kazakhstan's 2024 national referendum on constructing a nuclear power plant near Lake Balkhash; locals reportedly approached the crew to ask them to stop filming during the shoot, leaving the crew with only one wide shot.
- Producer Aruzhan Dossymkosha told Variety Kazakhstan is in "a very active period in filmmaking" and predicted Kazakh cinema will reach "full potential" over the next 10 to 20 years.
- The 23-day shoot took place 700 km from the crew's home city in a town with water-supply issues, summer heat and mosquitoes, a logistical grind that fed into the film's small-town melancholy.
Why it matters: For Kazakh cinema, the San Sebastián premiere lands during what producer Dossymkosha calls a very active growth period, giving an emerging national cinema international visibility. The film also embeds the 2024 national referendum on a Lake Balkhash nuclear plant into its narrative, making it a real-time political artifact of a country still debating its energy future rather than just a personal migration drama.
Ask SkimNews
