Kazakhstan Enters TIFF-bound STRANGER In Oscar Race

New York – Kazakhstan’s Official Submission for the Academy Awards, STRANGER (ZHAT) by Yermek Tursunov, will premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. This is not Tursunov’s first brush with Oscar, he was short-listed for Best Foreign Film with his nomadic-time drama KELIN in 2010 – making it the furthest a Kazakh film has ever made it to the Oscars. His previous film SHAL (OLD MAN) was also selected as Kazakhstan’s Official Submission for the Academy Awards in 2012.

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With his sixth feature STRANGER, Yermek Tursunov continues his cinematic exploration of Kazakh nomads eking out a living in the harsh steppes. Ilyas (Yerzhan Nurymbet) is a young man who survived the famine of the 30s, Stalinist deportation and WWII by retreating in a cave to live off the land, but finds himself battling society in a bid to retain his freedom. His secluded and nomadic life has not prepared him for the dramatic developments in his Soviet-era community, even though he tries his best to connect with the villagers. Produced by Kanat Torebay for Tursunov Film, STRANGER is based on a screenplay that Tursunov wrote while studying at Moscow’s leading film school VGIK.

Based on Tursunov’s novel by the same title, KELIN follows a young bride as she’s taken into the yurt of a young shepherd, played by STRANGER lead actor Yerzhan Nurymbet in ancient nomadic times. After its TIFF International Premiere, KELIN went on to screen in Busan, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and Locarno, among many other festivals.

Loosely inspired by Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea, SHAL (THE OLD MAN) depicts life on the modern-day steppes, with an old man trying to herd his sheep across the vast expanse. Interference from city ‘hunters’ unmoors his well-developed instinct as they evoke the wrath of the local wolves. SHAL also premiered at TIFF, in 2012.

Yermek Tursunov was born in 1961 in Kazakhstan. He is a novelist, writer and film director. A graduate from the Faculty of Journalism of Kazakh National University, Tursunov wrote notable novels such as Prelude, Tamga, Kurak Korpe, Mustafa Shokai, Mamlyuk, Kelin, Seven Days In May and One Way Ticket. Tursunov won the Grand Prix in Russia’s screenwriting competition, the Golden Star Prize for his script TELL ME, WHO IS YOUR FRIEND (Russia), Kazakhstan’s National Kulager Prize for Best Film in 2010 for KELIN and Best Director in 2012 for SHAL.

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