Ilya Gariyev

The Last Ronin

Haunted by the ghosts of the past, lone traveller Ronin wanders the post-apocalyptic wastelands in search of his father's killer. The devastation caused by climate change led to a global nuclear war, destroying civilisation as we know it: lands are scorched and cities destroyed. Electrical equipment no longer works and gasoline has long lost the properties that made it the world's greatest resource. The main currency in this new world is AK47 cartridges. Everywhere Ronin goes, he encounters blood-thirsty headhunters and rogue gangs all fighting for scraps in this dangerous new world. Then, one day, Ronin meets a wayward teenage girl who offers him a precious bounty for escorting her to her birthplace, a journey that will require all his fighting skills.

Joqtau

Darkhan, a young scientist, returns home, where he has not been for seven years. His girlfriend Elena comes with him. The eldest member of the family - Darkhan's grandfather Sagat - invites his grandson and his girlfriend on a trip to their native places, lost in the infinity of the steppe. All three embark on a transformative meditative journey, confronting questions of acceptance along the way, exploring and testing the strength of their bonds.

Crickets, It's Your Turn

25-year-old Merey lives a quiet but happy life in Almaty. By chance, she meets the charming Nurlan, who invites her to a birthday party in the mountains. She expects a simple celebration with new friends, but what ensues is an intense and tumultuous night that quickly spirals into a dark game of cat-and-mouse.

Crickets, It's Your Turn

25-year-old Merey lives a quiet but happy life in Almaty. By chance, she meets the charming Nurlan, who invites her to a birthday party in the mountains. She expects a simple celebration with new friends, but what ensues is an intense and tumultuous night that quickly spirals into a dark game of cat-and-mouse.

Crickets, It's Your Turn

25-year-old Merey lives a quiet but happy life in Almaty. By chance, she meets the charming Nurlan, who invites her to a birthday party in the mountains. She expects a simple celebration with new friends, but what ensues is an intense and tumultuous night that quickly spirals into a dark game of cat-and-mouse.

Ademoka’s Education

Ademoka is a headstrong and gifted 15-year-old girl whose big dream is to study. Her status as Lyuli an illegal immigrant from Tajikistan is a serious obstacle to this. She is exploited by her extended family and forced to beg on the streets, she manages to free herself from the family, when they get deported she has to choose between family and education. She gets helped on the way by some oddball characters, who come to her aid against the corrupt system and the patriarchal family.

Goliath

The Kazakh village Karatas has long been subjugated by a criminal boss called Poshaev. He provides housing and jobs for the locals but will ruthlessly execute anyone who dares to oppose him. This is the lesson the pauper Arzu is about to learn first-hand—his wife Karina has informed the police about the crimes that are taking place there. Arzu is a cripple; now he must raise his little daughter alone. He is so helpless and grief-stricken that he doesn’t even seem to be contemplating revenge. Poshaev takes him under his wing and offers him the position of a guard at a building site. Soon Arzu has a chance to prove his loyalty, and he becomes Poshaev’s right hand. But where do Arzu’s real loyalties lie—with his boss or with the idea of justice?

The Assault

Masked figures with machine guns march into the secondary school in Karatas, take the pupils hostage, and execute one of them. They make no demands. Silent terror is their modus operandi. Seeing as the army will take two days to arrive due to a snowstorm, maths teacher Tazshi decides to assemble his own assault team: his ex-wife, the gym teacher, the cowardly school principal, an alcoholic night watchman, the village idiot, and an incompetent chief of police.

Herd Immunity

Selkeu Uashev is a local police officer at Karatas village. He’s not a man of high morals and can hardly be called a role model as a policeman. He turns a deaf ear to lots of criminal offences and takes bribes. For that he’s loved a lot by local criminals and frauds. But one day the commission arrives from the city to declare the big audit all over the village due to pandemic…

Fire

Tolik, a bread delivery man, lives with his pregnant wife Altynai, his two daughters– Saule who is about to enter college and her younger sister— and a somewhat selfish father. The family is already drowning in debt. Meanwhile, Saule becomes pregnant, and Tolik and Altynai are insulted by her boyfriend′s parents. Tolik goes to complain to his only friend, Baur, but Baur collapses from a heart attack while dancing.

Ulbolsyn

Life in Karatas Village runs along an untroubled path, until its patriarchal way of life is challenged by Ulbolsyn, a woman whose coldblooded heart and blazing temperament are not afraid of setting everything on fire.

Yellow Cat

Ex-con Kermek and his beloved Eva want to leave their crime-infested lives on the Kazakh steppes behind. He has a dream: building a movie theater in the mountains. Will Kermek's love of Alain Delon be strong enough to keep them out of the violent clutches of the mafia?

Atbai’s Fight

The film tells the story of a street thug Atbai, who decides to take part in MMA tournament, where the winners are already decided. But Atbai is going to win, because for him this victory is a chance to start a new life: to return to big sports and to get his beloved woman back.

A Dark, Dark Man

A boy is murdered in Kazakh village. Detective Bekzat wants to wrap up the inquiries quickly: after all, the perpetrator has already been found by local police officers. But when a journalist arrives from the city, everything falls to pieces. For the first time in his career, Bekzat must conduct a real investigation according to procedure.

Face The Music

Colored hair, earrings in ears, bright clothes - an image that is very different from the Kazakh standard of masculinity. This is how the main characters of this, members of the Kazakhstani group Ninety One, look like. Many will not find anything unusual in the image of the musicians, however, the group’s popularity among Kazakh-speaking teenagers caused a great indignation of part of society, which led to street protests, disruptions of concerts and pressure from the authorities. The appearance of Ninety One revealed a whole layer of social and cultural conflicts within Kazakhstani society - between urban and rural culture, between traditionalism and globalization, between the vertical of power and personal freedom.

Su

The past must remain in the past. However, old Kasymych returns to the places of his childhood in order to relive again and again the best moments of a bygone life. But what is left of his childhood today? Is anyone waiting for him in the past?

Su

The past must remain in the past. However, old Kasymych returns to the places of his childhood in order to relive again and again the best moments of a bygone life. But what is left of his childhood today? Is anyone waiting for him in the past?

The Gentle Indifference of the World

After her father's untimely death, Saltanat is forced to trade her idyllic countryside life for the cruel city. She has to find money to pay off the large family debt that her father left behind, in order to save her mother from jail. Friends since their village childhood, her loyal, but penniless admirer Kuandyk follows her just to make sure his sweetheart is safe. Saltanat's uncle introduces her to a possible groom, who promises to pay off her family's debts. But Saltanat's hopes are dashed, when she discovers that the men in this city don't keep their word. When Kuandyk tries to help Saltanat get the money through other ways, he ends up finding himself in more trouble than he bargained for. Although life keeps dealing them bad hands, Saltanat and Kuandyk never give up, no matter what the odds.

Sex, Fear, and Hamburgers

The 30-year-old Iskander is a food-photographer who, due to his own indecision, experiences a crisis both in his work and in his sexual relation with his colleague and beloved Laura. He wants to change his situation by completing a promising project for a popular fast food chain. Because of a «red level of terrorist threat» in the city, while he’s working he ends up locked in a fast food with a random customer, Anat. The two have sex, then Iskander backs out, but Anat finds a way to get satisfaction. She teaches him not to be afraid of mistakes. Iskander gains self-confidence and shows his courage in his job and in sex with Laura, who finally gives him her respect and love.

Bad Bad Winter

After the passing of her grandmother, a businessman's daughter goes back to her birthplace. After a little while, she receives the visit of her former classmates but their reunion take an unexpected turn. The guests tells her that they need some money to cover the murder they've committed.

Night God

Two workers are having a leisurely conversation. More and more often people see in the sky red tails of comets, wonder creatures appear from nowhere and a roar is said to be coming from the underground. What is the meaning of it all? – asks one of them. The other replies that he has never seen anything like that in his life. And even if all of the above mentioned exists, is it worthwhile paying attention to it? The important thing is to do one’s job because life goes its own way.

City Filth

Driven by the pain of losing a loved one, not to mention the all-pervasive injustice and abuse of power that surrounds him, a lone individual resorts to vigilante justice.

The Plague at the Karatas Village

A new mayor seeks the origins of a mysterious illness that is running rampant throughout a remote village.