STARS OF THE STEPPE

Ermek Shinarbaev

He was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 1953. He studied acting (1970-1974) and film direction (1977-1981) at MoscowÕs Film Institute (VGIK). He began his career as an actor, in 1974, and went on to work as an assistant director on feature films produced by state-owned Kazakhfilm Studios. In 1981 he began to direct, and then, in 1985, he began producing independent films and musical events. His short film The Beauty in Mourning received several awards in short film festivals in the Soviet Union. His feature film My Sister Liusia was shot for Kazakhfilm on an extremely low budget in 1985, but censorship didnÕt allow it to be screened on Soviet TV until 1987. It was ShinarbaevÕs first collaboration with Anatoly Kim, a Russian writer of Korean ancestry, and it was a debut for both writer and director. The film received the Jury Special prize at the Amiens International Film Festival in 1987. This was followed by the film Out of the Forest and into the Glade, in which he collaborated with Kim once again. His next film, The Revenge, was screened at numerous international festivals, including Cannes (Un certain regard), Montreal, Cairo and Rotterdam. It received the Etienne Jules Marey and the C.I.D.A.L.C. (the International Committee for the Diffusion of Arts and Letters through Cinema) prize at the Henry Langlois International Film Festival in Tours, France, in 1992. His film My Place on the Tricorne was screened at about 20 international film festivals all over the world, and won the Golden Leopard and the FIPRESCI Award at the Locarno film Festival in 1993. In 1993 he made the film Tender Heart, a Kazakh-French co-production. Talking about his film My Place on the Tricorne, Shinarbaev said: ÒThe meaning of life has little to do with efforts or desires. ItÕs something more complicated and more interesting. And the real goal of the film is the idea that life is a strange and beautiful thing, given to us like a precious jewel.Ó

FILMOGRAPHY
1982 The Beauty in Mourning (short film)
1985 My Sister Liusia
1987 Out of the Forest and into the Glade
1990 The Revenge
1992 The Place on the Tricorne
1993 Tender Heart