Film and Identity in Kazakhstan

Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture in Central Asia

Rico Isaacs

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781350252295
• eBook ISBN: 9781838608521
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Central Asian History
• Index: History

Cinema and nationalism are two fundamentally modern phenomena, but how have films shaped our understanding of the creation -the 'imagining' - of Central-Asian nations? Here, Rico Isaacs uses cinema as an analytical lens to explore how the Kazakh national identity has been constructed and contested. Drawing on an analysis of Kazakh films from the last century, and featuring new interviews with directors and critics involved in the Central Asian film industry, his book traces the construction of nationalism within Kazakh cinema from the country's inception as a Soviet Republic to a modern independent nation.Isaacs identifies four narratives since the collapse of the Soviet Union: a warrior-like 'ethnic' narrative rooted in the 18th Century struggles against the Mongolian Oirat tribes; a 'civic' inspired narrative cemented in the Stalinist deportations of the 1930s and 40s; a religious narrative founded within the mystic and philosophical religion of Tengrism and the cult of the Sky God; and a socio-economic narrative which roots Kazakh nationhood and identity in contemporary social divisions, the lived day-to-day experiences of ordinary citizens and the struggles they face with authority.
These last two tropes demonstrate how cinema has emerged as a site of dissent against the country's authoritarian regime under President Nazarbayev. Film and Identity in Kazakhstan advances our understanding of Kazakhstan and nationalism by demonstrating the multiple and inessential character of each, and illustrates the important role of cinema in contesting political power in the post-Soviet space.

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Note on Transliteration
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction From Constructed to Contested Nations: Theorising and Analysing Nation and Cinema
• 1. Kazakh Khanate to Kazakh Eli: Nation-building in Kazakhstan in Historical and Political Context
• 2. Between Two Worlds: Kazakh Film and Nation-building in the Soviet Era
• 3. The Disruption of Time: The ‘Kazakh New Wave’ 1985–95
• 4. Naked in the Mirror: The Ethno-centric Narrative of Kazakh Nationhood
• 5. May the Grass Never Grow at Your Door: The Civic Conception of Nationhood in Kazakh Cinema
• 6. ‘Hymn to Mother’: Tengrism, Motherhood and Nationhood
• 7. The Steppe, Disorientation, Division and Corruption: Social and Economic Visions of Modern Nationhood
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Filmography
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• eCopyright