The Busan Foundation for International Cooperation and the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Korea jointly hosted the Kazakhstan Film Festival from June 24 to 26 at the Busan Cinema Center. The event was dedicated to the 30th Anniversary of Korea-Kazakhstan diplomatic relations and the opening of the Consulate General of Kazakhstan in Busan.
The festival screened Kazakhstan films shown at the Busan International Film Festival between 2013 and 2021. The festival opened with the movie “Fire” by the young film director Aizhan Kassymbek. She had recorded a video message to the Busan audience where she talked about her studies at the Asian Film Academy in Busan and revealed that South Korean composer Choi Jong-ho wrote the music for her film.
The viewers were able to experience Kazakhstan’s culture via movies as Sharia Urazbayeva’s “Red Pomegranate”, Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s “Yellow Cat” and “A Dark-Dark Man”, Kazakh-Japanese “The Horse Thieves, Roads of Time”, Farkhat Sharipov’s “The Secret of Leader”, Yerlan Nurmukhambetov’s “Walnut Tree”, and animation film “Er Tostik and the Dragon”.
Lee Chiwoo, Deputy-Secretary General of Busan Foundation for International Cooperation, shared about his plans to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in July this year.
“The first city will be Almaty. Today I feel like I got to know it. It would be good if, as part of the friendship agreement between Busan and Almaty, South Koreans learned more about Kazakh culture. There are many beautiful shots about the city in the film. The main character is similar to us and probably the people of Busan will feel the similarity in culture,” said Lee Chiwoo about the “Fire” film.