Cannes and Venice: What is the Secret of Kazakh Director Adilkhan Yerzhanov?

The Cannes Film Festival, Venice, and the Asian Film Festival are just a few of the major cinematic events that have given special attention to the films of Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Over 17 years of work, the Kazakh director has built a signature style and is now conquering international film festivals and awards. In a new column, The Voice Media writer Dinara Sarbasova explores the secret behind Adilkhan Yerzhanov's cinema and what sets him apart from others.

A Professional Perspective

Every film by Adilkhan Yerzhanov is the result of his deep involvement in all stages of production. He serves not only as director, but also as writer and editor for all his works, viewing the entire filmmaking process as one continuous, fascinating journey.

Yerzhanov graduated from the Directing Department of the T. K. Zhurgenov Kazakh National Academy of Arts and furthered his studies through an internship in New York. This formal education largely defined his attitude toward cinema and his approach to work. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the director explained how he shoots and edits his own films—within a matter of days, capturing only the exact shots that will make the final cut, a system he refers to as camera cutting:

"Many people shoot extra takes 'just in case,' believing that having more options is always better. I think that's the wrong approach. A director should create their film on set, not in the editing room. It's crucial for a director to distinguish the specific from the general, the essential from the non-essential. If everything in the frame serves the central idea, you need to know when to stop. As I always say: better is the enemy of good." — Adilkhan Yerzhanov

An Artistic Universe

Yerzhanov's work as a screenwriter is immediately striking. He sets the majority of his stories in the village of Karatas, building his own surreal cinematic universe. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the Kazakh director breaks down each story into two elements: "pure realism" and "something phantasmagoric."

For example, in The Plague at the Karatas Village, the stark realism of the village's state infrastructure intersects with a surreal plague that strikes the population—triggering deserted streets and ritual dances while serving as an allegory for village-wide corruption. This blend allowed Yerzhanov to go beyond merely criticizing corruption, inviting a broader reflection on it as a product of the worldview and mindset of Kazakh society, a point he highlighted at the film's premiere in Almaty. The picture itself went on to win several accolades, including the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

In the film Ulbolsyn, the village of Karatas serves as the backdrop for the protagonist's (played by Asel Sadvakassova) fight against a patriarchal system as she sets out to save her younger sister from an forced marriage. The surrealism is similarly shaped by Karatas's inhabitants: investigators refuse to help and act artificially dim-witted, while the multiple wives of the respected doctor—to whom the heroine's sister is to be wed—insist on performing "spirit expulsion" rituals before the wedding. The world premiere of Ulbolsyn took place at the 24th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where it was named Best Asian Film.

A Team Like Family

Yerzhanov’s film crew moves with him from one project to the next. Production designer Ermek Utegenov remains a constant, Galymzhan Moldanazar composed the scores for his last few films (A Dark, Dark Man, Goliath, Assault), and the cast of Yerzhanov's pictures is instantly recognizable. It frequently features prominent Kazakh actors Dinara Baktybaeva, Sanzhar Madi, and Asel Sadvakassova, while director cast Daniyar Alshinov in leading roles for nearly six consecutive films. In interviews, Yerzhanov notes that he selects actors "like keys, based on one primary principle: they are talented and natural."

This recurring cast showcases the range of both the actors and the director. Yerzhanov particularly enjoys showcasing Daniyar Alshinov in different lights, admitting he would love to build a collaboration with him akin to Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro on a Kazakh scale. Their first joint project was A Dark, Dark Man, where the actor played a detective forced within a corrupt system to conduct his first genuine investigation into a child's murder. In Atbai's Fight, Alshinov played Atbai, a vivid and complex mobster who decides to enter a street-fighting tournament with a predetermined winner. For this role, Alshinov won Best Dramatic Actor at the IMDb International Competition in New York.

Objectivity

The director intentionally keeps the viewer from becoming overly involved in the story. In interviews, he explains that in his work, he strives to create distance between the narrative and the audience, allowing viewers to observe the story "from the outside."

For instance, even though Adilkhan Yerzhanov critiques social issues within Kazakh society in his films, he avoids making direct references to real-world events or tying his stories to current headlines. Instead, the director seeks to view these problems from a broader, alternative perspective. This "outsider" view is largely defined by calm, static shots framing the characters' actions. These characters, incidentally, are often morally ambiguous and difficult to sympathize with, giving the narrative added depth. It is precisely this formula that has forged Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s distinctive style of cinema—one that continues to surprise audiences more and more with every new film.