In this issue:
Washington Premiere Set for The Hunter
OSCE Media Freedom Representative Will Visit Kazakhstan
Major News Media Sign Clean Election Charter
Kazakh Peace Biker Gets Warm Reception in Tucson
Let’s go to the movies tonight! --- Bugun kinoga barayek!
Is it an adventure movie? --- Bul kyzyk okigaly film be?
Does the movie theater have parking? --- Kinoteatrdyn mashina koyatyn dzhere bar ma?
How much for the ticket? --- Billettin kuni kansha?
Washington Premiere Set for The Hunter
The Hunter, the latest movie from Serik Aprymov, will premiere in Washington, DC, Saturday October 1 at the National Geographic Society.
The 93-minute movie, shot in 2004, tells the story of a young village
boy living in Kazakhstan’s breathtaking mountains, who is befriended
by the hunter he stole from and learns to overcome his own coldness
by understanding the laws of nature, women, and death.
In the director’s statement on the new movie, Aprymov, 45, a well
known film director of the Kazakh New Wave generation, said he
wanted “to combine mythology with a realistic style of narration in
order to express the complexity and the contradictions of two worlds: human society and the harmonic world of wild animals.”
He explains his idea of using “altogether burlesque and poetic symbols” because “human ideas of good and evil are not universal. In my film, I would like to let people hear at the same time the desperate cry of a human being and the neutral silence of nature.”
According to Aprymov, “the position of human beings is shown by the Hunter. Actually, this character is on the border between the two worlds: the human world and the animal one. Through the boy’s initiation with the Hunter, he has an experience impossible in the modern world. At the end of the film, these two worlds become one: men and animals unite.”
Pardo News, a Swiss newspaper, wrote that The Hunter showed: “Aprymov has an eye for both picaresque and poetic imagery. The mountainous landscapes are lovingly filmed. There are constant cutaways to birds or wolves as well dream like images which look as if they have been culled from the work of Chagall. We see the hunter making love to a beautiful woman on horseback, as he gallops at reckless pace across the Steppes. There is a strong mythical element to the narrative. The hunter is the double of the lonely wolf who seems to follow him wherever he goes.”
In addition to The Hunter, which has already won a number of international awards, Aprymov has directed three full length and two short movies in 20 years of filmmaking, including the 2000 movie, Tri Brata (Three Brothers) which also won numerous awards.
The Hunter was previously shown in Los Angeles as part of the National Geographic Society’s All Roads Film Festival.
Aprymov will be in Washington and present at the movie’s premiere at 7 p.m. in the main auditorium of the National Geographic Society at 1145 17th Street NW, in Washington, DC. More information is available at www.nationalgeographic.com/allroads. Tickets are $10 at the door, or $8 for members in advance. To purchase tickets, call (202) 857 7700 or visit nationalgeographic.com/nglive.
Aprymov is available for news media interviews. Interested parties should contact Kadisha Dairova at the Embassy of Kazakhstan at 202 232 5488, ext. 107.
OSCE Media Freedom Representative Will Visit Kazakhstan
Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, plans to visit Kazakhstan in October for meetings with senior government officials as the country approaches the December 4 presidential election.
According to the OSCE Almaty Office, Haraszti also sent a legal review of the draft media law of Kazakhstan to the Congress of Journalists of Kazakhstan, a nongovernmental organization uniting editors and reporters from major news outlets.
In the review, he offered recommendations on how to improve the draft and expressed hope that his views will be taken into account by the Congress and by Kazakhstan’s Parliament which is expected to discuss the draft in the coming days.
“The new law can help improve media freedom in Kazakhstan and provide for better protection of journalists’ rights,” Haraszti said. The OSCE representative has been involved in the news media legislation review process in Kazakhstan for several years.
During his visit, Haraszti will also open the Seventh Central Asian Media Conference in Almaty, which is expected to bring together journalists from across the region.
Major News Media Sign Clean Election Charter
Representatives of Kazakhstan’s news media outlets gathered together in Astana have signed a charter calling for clean elections.
Those signing included several radio, television as well as print news media.
The charter, “For Clean Election”, states: “The choice is with the voter. News media are there just to give facts, and not impose opinions.”
In the charter, the signatories said “we believe the more objective the news media, the easier it would be for all of us to elect a decent leader.”
The presidential campaing for December 4 election is gathering speed.
Kazakh Peace Biker Gets Warm Reception in Tucson
Dmitri Petrukhin, 49, the Kazakh biker from Almaty, brought his message of peace, friendship and support for the victims of the recent hurricanes, to Tucson, Arizona, on September 28.
Tucson is a sister city of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city with the population of 1.5 million people.
Petrukhin was warmly welcomed by members of the Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee and was warmly received at a reception in his honor yesterday in Tucson hosted by the Ironhorse BMW Motorcycle shop in Tucson.
Petrukhin, on an around-the-world journey, was proudly flying the flag of Kazakhstan and the American flag on the back of his motorcycle as he rolled into Ironhorse’s parking lot.
“We have hosted many people from Kazakhstan over the last 16 years, but this is the first motorcyclist,” said Jerry Gary, Chairman of the Tucson-Almaty Sister Cities Committee. “Dimitri’s show of compassion and care as he visited the sites of the World Trade Center and passed through the area devastated by hurricane Katrina, truly reflect the desire of the citizens of Kazakhstan, and especially Almaty, to be friends and allies of our country. Tucson welcomes him,” said Gary.
Petrukhin drove through Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas on his way to Arizona. He is headed to the West Coast.
Things to Watch:
- Ambassador Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, will visit Kazakhstan on September 30.
- Gregory H. Olsen, co-founder and chairman of the board of Sensors Unlimited, Inc. (SUI), is scheduled to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on September 30, 2005 at 11:54 PM EST on a Soyuz TMA-7 orbital spaceflight mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
- The 13th annual Kazakhstan International Oil & Gas Exhibition (KIOGE) will take place in Almaty, October 4-7, 2005.
- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is due to visit Kazakhstan in October 2005. The news was announced by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defense in September.
________________________________________________________________________________
News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and agency reports)
Contact person: Roman Vassilenko
1401 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036
Tel.: 202 232 5488, ext. 104, Fax: 202 232 5845
