Meet Alisher Utev, A Kazakh filmmaker who tells local stories through artistic realism

euronews (in English)

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.

Transcript

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.

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