Kazakh film “Poet” enters the program of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival

NUR-SULTAN – “Akyn” (“Poet”) a movie directed by Kazakh director Darezhan Omirbayev is among the top ten titles at Forum 2022 – a prestigious program of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival, better known as Berlinale, one of the largest annual film festivals in the world, Kazakhfilm press service reports.

The festival, which will start from February 10 to 20 as an in-person event next year, includes 10 films at the moment, while a full schedule is yet to be announced in January 2022.

The film, which premiered at the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival, tells the story of a Kazakh poet who works as an ordinary editor in a small newspaper in the Kazakh language and fights against the fear of being misunderstood and of being a stranger among people, who are no longer interested in literature and poetry, but with innovative technologies.

The screenplay was based on “The Author’s Evening”, a story by German writer Hermann Hesse.

In November, the jury of the Tokyo International Film Festival congratulated the film and awarded Omirbayev the award for best director award.

As the brightest representative of the Kazakh New Wave Film Festival, the winner of the Cannes, Venice and Locarno festivals was also recently named Honored Worker of Kazakhstan.

Overall, the Kazakh film industry rose to fame at the end of this year, as many films directed by local directors not only premiered at well-known international film festivals, but also received prestigious awards.

Four films were premiered and released at festivals around the world and in foreign countries (“Mukagali” by Bolat Kalymbetov, “Tomiris” by Akan Satayev, “The Horse Thieves” by Yerlan Nurmukhambetov and “Akyn” (“Poet”) by Darezhan Omirbayev).

Ten Kazakh films were screened at the Eurasian Creative Guild Film Festival from June 24 to 28 in London.

Two films received major awards: “Mukagali” won the Ecumenical Prize at the Tallinn International Dark Night Film Festival and “Maryam” won an Honorable Mention at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sharipa Urazbayeva who directed “Mariam” won the award for best female director at the Rainbow Film Festival in London, Darezhan Omirbayev who directed “Akyn” (“poet”) won the award for best director at the 34th International Film Festival of Tokyo, while Yerkebulan Daiyrov won the Best Asian Actor Award for his role in “Sunflower” at the 2021 Cannes Film Prize.