Kazakh Director Daulet Zhumabayev on New Film Kesu and Pursuing a Career in Hollywood

Kazakh director Daulet Zhumabayev hopes to bring his new action film, Kesu, featuring South Korean actors, to South Korean theaters. The film was released in Kazakhstan on October 15. It follows a Kazakh taekwondo practitioner and a South Korean champion as they travel to Seoul in search of their missing mentor. The film is Zhumabayev’s second feature, following the sports drama Arlan: The Final Round. Zhumabayev focuses on mainstream genre films and sees international collaboration as an opportunity to reach audiences beyond Kazakhstan. His debut feature became available on Amazon Prime Video, although he does not consider a streaming release equivalent to breaking into the American market. In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, Zhumabayev discussed working with South Korean actors, the prospects for international film production, his experience studying abroad, and why Kazakhstan may find it difficult to replicate Korean cinema’s success in Hollywood. TCA: Your new film, Kesu, features both Kazakh and South Korean actors. Did you have to change your directing approach when working with an international cast? Daulet Zhumabayev: No, I worked with everyone the same way. I don’t really have a fully developed directing system yet. I have my own methods for trying to communicate to actors what I want to achieve. I’ve taken some things from Judith Weston’s book Directing Actors, others from the Stanislavski method, and still others I’ve come up with intuitively. I gave both groups of actors the same kind of direction, and everyone understood perfectly well what I wanted from them. TCA: How did you build relationships between the Kazakh and Korean members of the film crew? Zhumabayev: That’s very important. And I’m extremely grateful to our lead actor, Asylkhan Tolepov, for the way he supported his Korean co-star, Ben (Joo Woo Geon). From the very beginning, we tried to create a particular atmosphere. When the Korean actors arrived in Kazakhstan, we didn’t just put them up in a hotel and provide meals. We welcomed them as real guests. We took them to Shymbulak, treated them to beshbarmak, and introduced them to our traditions. We wanted them to experience Kazakh hospitality and never feel like outsiders here, not even for a second. That immediately set the tone for our relationship. They could see that we treated them warmly and sincerely, that we cared not only about getting good performances from them but also about making their stay in Kazakhstan comfortable. And I think that probably motivated them to give their best on set as well. TCA: Did you make any allowances for the foreign actors during filming? Zhumabayev: None whatsoever. I expected complete dedication from them. They trained in the gym, learned Kazakh, and prepared for difficult scenes. We treated them as guests, but we worked as one team, with everyone having their own responsibilities. They’re very respectful and attentive. After filming ended, they all sent me warm messages thanking me for working together. They said they’d felt comfortable working with me and had learned a lot themselves....