The debut feature film "Steppe" by Maxim Akbarov, about the fight of nature inspectors against poachers, has been released, reports infohub.kz.
The film took a long time to reach audiences: production wrapped in 2022, and in 2023 it toured international film festivals, collecting numerous awards. The domestic premiere took place at the "Bastau" film festival, where it received a Special Jury Prize. Now, three years later, it gets a wide release.
This is a characteristic trait of Akbarov the producer. His previous film "Brothers" by Darkhan Tulegenov also traveled the world before reaching Kazakh audiences. A similar fate seems to await the film "Jaza" with Yerzhan Tusupov, which has long been ready, but the release date is unknown even to Akbarov himself.
As a producer, Maxim is very productive: in recent years, he has released the films "Alga", "Dala kaskyry", "Shulamah", and "Kyzym". Akbarov initially did not plan to direct "Steppe" himself, but after a long search for a director who would be close to the subject, he decided to take matters into his own hands. Together with cinematographer Sherkhan Tansykbayev, he went to the Kostanay region, to the Nauruzum Nature Reserve. Filming took place both in winter and summer, at temperatures from -40 to +50 Celsius, with the crew constantly on the move due to the abundance of action, chases, fights, and shootouts.
The main characters of "Steppe" are two inspectors of "Okhotzooprom": a veteran (Seidulla Moldakhanov) and a young officer (Dauren Sergazin), son of the former head of the hunting service. During a patrol, they come across armed poachers but release them after finding nothing illegal. Soon the rangers meet a lost mother and daughter (Zhanel Makazhan and Alfiya Sattarova), whose car was struck by a horse. Trying to get them to civilization, the heroes again encounter the same poachers, and a shootout with casualties begins.
The plot resembles the fantasy action film "Mad Max", but also shows the routine of inspectors who risk their lives daily. The film is dedicated to two real heroes — Yerlan Nurgaliyev and Kanysh Nurtazinov, who died at the hands of poachers in 2019 while on duty. There are many such tragic stories in the Kazakh steppe.
Interestingly, a film about nature protectors has almost no wild animals — not even one saiga antelope appears on screen. The poachers resemble racketeers more than trophy hunters. There are no complaints about the cast: Yerzhan Tusupov, Nyshanbek Zhubanayev, Tolepbergen Baisakalov, and Yerbolat Alkozha are authentic. The cinematography is beautiful but soulless; the film lacks integrity. It is dynamic but doesn't know where to go or why. Good inspectors, bad poachers, shootouts and chases to nowhere. Then credits and black-and-white photos of real people.