The independent Kazakh movie “Bikechess,” with KIMEP University connections, won Best International Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival in June in New York City.
Written and directed by a filmmaker, Assel Aushakimova, and starring KIMEP journalism alumna Saltanat Nauruz, the movie was praised by Tribeca judges for its cutting satire and deadpan humor.
“This film caught the jury unaware,” noted one juror in a statement released by the film festival that is run by Robert De Niro. “With a lightness of style and use of cinematic language that led us into a society of oppressed youth and passive leadership. With stylish performances, and generous cinematography, we met a country and the state of the world.”
The movie is about a struggling disenchanted Kazakh journalist, Dina, whose life is in chaos. It opens on the latest Kazakhstan government initiative to encourage physical fitness through the hybrid sport of Bikechess, where contestants play chess while pedaling stationary bicycles.
Throughout “Bikechess,” Dina reports on imaginary problems rather than real ones, such as a public reception with a bored policeman who sits at a table in an empty parking lot to demonstrate the helpfulness of the government or a local scholar who claims that all life on Earth originated in Kazakhstan. All the while, Dina also tries to keep her activist sister out of trouble.
Dina constantly feels the constraints on journalists to maintain the ethical standards of the profession in the face of the demand to report on meaningless made-up slices of life segments.
In September, Aushakimova visited KIMEP to discuss her film and the industry in Kazakhstan. “Bikechess is Aushakimova’s second feature film; her first was “Welcome to the USA.”
As a filmmaker for more than 10 years, Aushakimova has a front row seat to the challenges of independent filmmaking when it comes to breaking with traditional comedy or propaganda films that take the lion’s share of government funding.
However, there seems to be a growing public desire for more dramas and films that tackle societal and cultural issues often explored within the range of non-traditional films, she said.
The rise of the film industry in Kazakhstan could be seen at the recent International Eurasian Film Market that took place in Almaty on Sept. 11-14. This event was designed to promote projects and companies within the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Participants included content producers and buyers, streaming platforms, foreign organizations promoting national film content, representatives of foreign funds, and individual programs to support film production and distribution.
Nearly 400 films were released in Kazakhstan in 2023 and that number is projected to increase this year with about 100 of those being feature films.
The most common genres remain comedy, and historical film, but audiences have a growing desire for more auteur and non-traditional films.
Overcoming the funding challenges of independent filmmaking in Kazakhstan today, Bikechess was made possible as a co-production with Alma Pictures teaming up with Les Films d’Antoine of France and Norway’s Maipo Films. The film had its Kazakhstan premier last month.