The Kazakh film industry is facing a serious crisis, linked to a huge gap between state investment and box office takings for national films. Society has split into two camps – those who defend domestic cinema as high art that does not need commercial success, and those who insist on the need for a return on government investment.
The Ministry of Culture and Information has repeatedly pointed out the problem: many Kazakh directors do not aim for wide theatrical release, preferring to realise their own creative ambitions rather than making films that meet the demands of a mass audience. One of the key reasons for this situation is the system of remuneration for directors, who receive 10% of the allocated budget, rather than of the box office takings.
A telling example is the film "Besmoinak" by Yermek Tursunov, for the production of which 500 million tenge was allocated. Under this scheme, the director's fee came to 50 million tenge. Despite the announced release dates (first in 2021, then March 2024), the film never made it to cinemas.
Of particular concern are the inflated production budgets. Another film by the same director, "Shal", cost the state 386.4 million tenge (over 2.5 million dollars). Furthermore, production costs seem unreasonably high: filming took place on the steppe with minimal sets, and without expensive special effects or computer graphics. The fee for the lead actor was only 5 thousand dollars.
For comparison, the American thriller "The Purge" (2013), which launched a successful franchise, was made for a comparable sum – 2.7 million dollars, despite featuring well-known actors. Yet the film took 89 million dollars at the box office, exceeding costs 33 times over. Kazakhstan's "Shal" brought in only 53.5 million tenge, which is 7 times less than the funds spent.
The statistics from the Centre for National Film Support over a five-year period look even more dismal: for the production of 98 films of various genres, 19 billion tenge was allocated, while total box office takings amounted to only 1.5 billion tenge – 12 times less than the funds invested by the state.
It is clear that the Kazakh film industry needs to find a balance between artistic value and commercial viability, in order to ensure the sensible use of state funds and the development of national cinema in the interests of a wide audience.