Page 80 - Steppe - Aigana Gali

64
Kazakhstan
Until she was ten years old, Kazakhstan was a part of the Soviet Union, so “all our religious and philosophical heritage was
cancelled. We were not allowed to follow our own or any religion... so my sense of the culture in the steppe feels inherited, carried in my DNA. I just knew it was there.” Originally inhabited by nomadic Scythians, Turkic nomads have occupied the country throughout its history. Once subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan, by the 16th century the Kazakhs emerged as a distinct group, divided into three jüz. "Kazakhstan was named by the Soviets, who wanted to take possession of her destiny.” In response, there was an explosion of the avant-garde, “a culture that happened in hidden, windowless places, where the artist had to hide both the self and their artistic expression.”
It is between these two things that the artist had to find her voice.
“During the Soviet era the most incredible art was made; at first there was the Russian avant-garde, then during the perestroika of the 1980s, a new wave of young Kazakh filmmakers emerged. My hero was Victor Tsoi, a true icon of the post Soviet generation who died tragically in his 30s. ”
Whilst the film industry in Kazakhstan was created by the Soviets, what they learnt also prepared them to challenge the cinematic establishment. Released in 1988, The Needle provided a catalyst for this new movement in Kazakh film. Directed by Rashid Nugmanov, Viktor Tsoi the frontman of the popular Soviet rock group Kino, was cast as the central figure. Considered by many to be a hero to the disaected Soviet youth,
“we understood that standing strong against something also gave you clarity of intention... and it happened in caves, with artists hiding what they were making, and who they were, because you were not allowed to create things that did not reflect the idea the union had of itself.”
In The Needle's denouement Tsoi’s character - who also composed the film score - returns to the city and discovers his ex-girlfriend has a heroin addiction. Wanting to save her, he takes her away “to the most forsaken place on the planet, the Aral Sea, now a salt desert, empty and dead. Watching this scene requires no commentary about how devastating human interaction with nature can be.”