Mid-February does not cease to please Kazakhstani movie lovers. In all the country’s cinemas, the shows of three widely discussed films were launched: a crime drama with the Oscar claim “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri”, a new solo film from Marvel “Black Panther” (launched two weeks before the premiere in Russia and four days before the premiere in the US) and the Kazakhstani comedy “Каникулы в Таиланде”. If everything is clear with the drama and the superhero film, the new domestic comedy causes an interest of a different nature – let’s talk about it.
In the domestic box office comedy “Каникулы в Таиланде” came out on February 14th and immediately had success with the audience, which can be judged from the responses and comments under the publications of actors in social networks. The director of the picture was Alen Niyazbekov. This is not the first work of a young director. His first big picture was the comedy “Оралман из Питера” in 2017, which tells about a trio of musicians from the village club. Work on the “Каникулы в Таиланде” started in October 2016 and reached theaters only in February 2018.
Credits: https://www.instagram.com/p/BLxNO7TgwzY/?taken-by=niyazbekoff
In his new project, the director used the previous formula for success, significantly modifying it – the film makes fun of national stereotypes, finds ridiculous situations even in ordinary student life and elevates their significance within the framework of life.
The plot and dialogues of the film are imbued with light humor, modern jokes on actual, social and hot topics and often uses an interesting wordplay in conversations.
“- Have you been to tropical countries?
– Yes, I have. I was in Shymkent. “
It is worth noting that before the filmmaking of large-scale films for wide distribution Niyazbekov was engaged in shooting music videos and, above all, became famous as a video clip maker. The experience of his previous works is noticeably distinguished in the new picture by the selection of music and spectacular graphics. Only a few films in our time can please at the same time by a variety of soundtracks from Jenishkhan Momyshev’s “Билеп Ал” to “Элвис” by Da Gudda Jazz, and the presence of computer graphics, which goes to the film only for the benefit, decorating the important plot elements of the film – “Каникулы в Таиланде” definitely can boast of this.
Speaking of “Каникулы” it will not be superfluous to mention that this is also the third producer project of Nurlan Koyanbayev, whose last year was very successfully ended with the release of the second part of “Бизнес по – казахски”. The picture became the record holder of domestic rental, surpassing the success of the movie “Брат или Брак.”
Just like in “Бизнес по – казахски”, Nurlan Koyanbayev played the main role in the plot, remaining one of the main comic elements of the picture, but this time the former KVN-player did not overtake all his attention, giving young actors the opportunity to show themselves. The participant of the team of КВН “Nomad Sparta Astana” Didar Dzheksekov together with the rising star Kuanysh Zhylzhaksynov created a good trio on the screen, on which the entire plot and humorous component was built. The impudence of Alpysbaev (Didar Dzheksekov), the modesty of Yermek (Kuanysh Zhylzhaksynov) and the skepticism of Askhat agay (Nurlan Koyanbaev) become a good basis for comedy in accordance to all the standards of foreign cinema. In the collection of the cast, Alen Niyazbekov was not afraid to make a move with the knight and bet on young and promising actors like Gazret Yerzhanov (Malik), Janel Makazhan (wife Janel), Daulet Bizhanov (Sabit), and others.
In addition to the above actors, you can also notice a friend of other pictures by Zhan Baizhanbaev in an extremely atypical role for him. The character of the well-known actor, as a result of the development of the plot, awaits a much unexpected surprise, you can learn about which only after going to the cinema.
The genre of comedy has developed well in the Kazakhstan film production market over the last couple of years – it should be noted in this merit “Келинка Сабина”, “Келинка тоже человек”, “Брат или Брак” and “Бизнес по-казахски”, each year collecting a good cash at the box office and convincing viewers in the level of development of domestic cinema. Comedy movies cannot be called the simplest genre in production, because humor is specific – for some that’s “burst of laughter” for others only a smirk. In creating a film, it’s important not to overstep the line of acceptable humor and not to insult people with an innocent joke, not to imagine everything in a bad light and not overdo it with irony and jokes based on people’s lives, politics and state position. Despite all these aspects in creating a good comedy, Kazakhstan cinema does not cease to please the visitors of the cinemas, and it’s not the first year that it releases several highly rated films, which the “Келинка Сабина” started with Nurtas Adambay.
This is not the end – not even the beginning – for the birth of a good national cinema. Ahead there will be many more films – dramas, comedies, historical films and thrillers.
“The cinema, like the detective story, enables us to experience without danger to ourselves all the excitements, passions, and fantasies which have to be repressed in a humanistic age.”
― Carl Jung
Kamila Chuzhenova
