Yernar Nurgaliyev still describes painting as his first love. Only now, instead of a brush, he uses a camera, and instead of a canvas, a screen. Today he shoots comedies, and dreams of a Kazakh multiverse where heroes never die. He is certain of one thing: Kazakh culture will be eternal, and he is doing everything possible to make it so.
The Times of Central Asia spoke with the director about how he entered film, what he plans to shoot next, and why he believes it is time for Kazakhstan to make itself known to the world.
TCA: Your films are always visually striking. Is this because you were originally trained as an artist?
Nurgaliyev: Yes. I graduated from art college, then enrolled at the Zhurgenov Academy of Arts to study set design. I thought I would deepen my craft, but the first courses turned out to be a repeat of the college programme. I was very bored, so I decided to go to work.
I didn’t start with music videos, but as an assistant propmaster. At that time, senior students recruited assistants from among firstyear students. An energetic girl, a production designer, asked me to help her with her diploma. Before that, I wasn’t interested in cinema at all, I lived for painting: I painted from life and did portraits. But when I saw the filmset, it was “wow.” I realised I wanted to work there. And I stopped going to the academy. I wanted to quit, but they wouldn’t let me.
TCA: But you still got your diploma?
Nurgaliyev: Yes, although it was difficult. I had nothing to do at the academy, still life, portraits, I had already done all that in college. There, they didn’t break us but helped us find our own style. At the academy, it was the opposite: the teacher said, “Draw like me.” But I can’t draw like someone else. I can only draw in my own way.
TCA: Do you paint now?
Nurgaliyev: I hardly have any time, but I recently picked up a brush again, and my hand remembers everything. Oil, watercolour, gouache, it’s as if there was no break. I am grateful to my hand; it remembers everything it was taught.
TCA: Which is more important, talent or perseverance?
Nurgaliyev: There are people who are gifted by God. But a gift is only the beginning. If you slack off and don’t develop, nothing will come of it. The worst thing is when a person is gifted but does nothing with it.
I don’t sit still. If I have one day without work, it feels like I haven’t filmed for a year. I always need to be on the move. If the pause drags on, I start calling my friends myself: “Let’s come up with something.”
@Galiya Baizhanova
TCA: This year, you turned down many projects, choosing instead to focus on another film. Is this a new stage?
Nurgaliyev: I’ve matured. Next year, I plan to shoot three of my own films. And I want to treat my career like a business: in serious business, you don’t expect instant profits. You do it, you invest, you move on. I have everything planned out for the year ahead.
TCA: One of the projects is a sequel to Zhanim, You Won’t Believe It, the first part of which was acquired by HBO. What will the sequel be about?
Nurgaliyev: The story will be about girls who decide to leave home without their husbands. In addition, two original films are planned: an adaptation of the Kazakh fairy tale ErTostik, and a children’s horror film about a vegetarian zombie.
TCA: A children’s horror film about a vegetarian zombie sounds unusual. What is it about?
Nurgaliyev: It’s a story about the friendship between a child and a zombie. In movies, children often have a best friend, an animal, a robot, an alien. I want the best friend to be a zombie.
TCA: Almost like Taika Waititi, except there it was an imaginary friend.
Nurgaliyev: Mine is real or rather, fantastical. The last Kazakh zombie to survive the “apocalypse of the ’90s.” He was accidentally walled up in a manhole, where he sat for thirty years, banging his head against the lid every day until he finally got out. He comes out, and all around him is a celebration of victory over the zombies.
TCA: And he decides to take revenge?
Nurgaliyev: No. He is completely kind. He doesn’t like blood, doesn’t eat meat, and dreams of becoming human. He meets a boy who hides him in the basement like a puppy. But the boy has two problems: zombieblood is still dangerous, and his father is a veteran of the zombie war who hates them.
TCA: And how are you adapting ErTostik?
Nurgaliyev: Remember the boy who grew by the hour? We’re taking the outline of the fairy tale, but moving the action to the present day. The story will be about something else, about a pure, naïve child’s view of the human world. He looks eighteen but thinks like a baby. He has yet to discover that people can gossip and spread rumours…
TCA: In one interview, you talked about your desire to create a “Kazakh multiverse.” What do you mean by that?
Nurgaliyev: I like the idea of a multiverse, like in Marvel or Everything Everywhere All at Once. Why not make a Kazakh one? Where heroes don’t die, but transition into other states. In short, a Kazakh Marvel?
TCA: Will it be animated?
Nurgaliyev: No. Real cinema, just without being limited to one space. I want to use the principles of anime, plasticity, rhythm, light, movement. It’s hard to explain in words. It’s easier to show.
I have an idea for a 2D film about a boy who has difficulty communicating with people. He lives in the world of comics. And one day he becomes the hero of his own comic book, entering a drawn reality. It’s a hybrid of fantasy and life.
TCA: Does your film have a mission?
Nurgaliyev: I want to believe that it does. I don’t want to make oneoff comedies. I strive to ensure that my films have at least a small educational element. I want our cinema to be known throughout the world. We have intelligent, talented people and a rich culture. We ourselves do not realise what treasures we have. We are no worse than South Korea or other countries with strong cinema. We just haven’t revealed ourselves yet, as if we live under a dome, shy.
Yes. For a long time, we were told that speaking Kazakh was unfashionable, that national elements were a sign of provincialism. We closed ourselves off from our own culture. But everything is changing. Kazakh has become fashionable; our songs are listened to not only in Kazakhstan; and our films are watched far beyond its borders.
We have something to be proud of. And the whole world should know about it.
