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Ermek Tursunov

Ermek Tursunov

Directing

Biography

Ermek Karimzhanovich Tursunov (Kazakh: Ермек Кәрімжанұлы Тұрсынов; born 20 July 1961; Narynkol) is a Kazakh film director and screenwriter, one of the best Asian Film director according to Asia Pacific Screen Awards, master of sport, international class in futsal. Ermek Tursunov was born in the settlement of Narynkol, Almaty Region, on 20 July 1961. He joined a sports school at the age of 5. Ermek continued his sports career at university playing professional futsal. As a member of Kazakhstan's national futsal team, Ermek took part in the 2000 World Cup in Guatemala. He is a graduate Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (Dept. Of Journalism, 1984) and All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (Screenwriting and Film Studies Dept., 1990). In 1991, Ermek participated in Nevada-Semey movement Anti-nuclear movement in Kazakhstan, and as an NGO member spent 4 years studying in the USA. Later he worked as the CEO of the national broadcasting corporation Qazaqstan and Executive Producer of Channel 31 TV and radio broadcasting company. Kelin was Ermek's debut as a director in 2008. This work was shortlisted for Oscar as the Best Foreign Language Film. 2012 saw his movie The Old Man (Shal), inspired by Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It collected numerous rewards, including Kulager, Kazakhstani national movie award, as the best movie of the year (2012); it was nominated for the Nika Award for the Best CIS and Baltic Movie in 2014. Stranger (Zhat) became another major movie in Tursunov's career as a screen director. Kazakhstan nominated it for an Oscar and Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Achievement in Directing); it received NETPAC award in the 19th Black Nights Festival in Tallinn. Ermek Tursunov was elected Chairman of the Kazakhstani Union of Filmmakers in 2018.

Known For

The Gift to Stalin
5.5

A Jewish child deported to Kazakhstan is saved and adopted by Kasym, an old Kazakh railway-man. Kasym gives him a Kazakh name, Sabyr, that in Kazakh language means humble. The child grows up in the small Kazakh village along with other deportees Vera, a traitor's wife, and Ezhik a Polish doctor. The Soviet militia harasses the poor peasants and Vera suffered the harassment of a bully cop: Bulgabi. Finally Vera accepts the marriage proposal of Ezhik but the jealous Bulgabi tries to prevent the marriage. The result is a fight in which Ezhik shoots himself accidentally. The old Kasym decides that Sabyr is now old enough to go to seek his real parents. At the end Sabyr, now an adult, decides to return to the village, but the village no longer exists because it was destroyed by a Soviet nuclear test.

The Gift to Stalin

2008
The Ultimate Fighter
3.3

The son of a rich businessman who has ties with the Russian mob. But the mob sets up his family and forced the young guy at fighting in martial arts tournament.

The Ultimate Fighter

2007
Tax Collector
8.0

It is hard to know the future. It is even more difficult to feel its inevitability. He is a tax collector. He has an inexplicable, supernatural gift to foresee the future. He is sent to where the impossible is needed. And he does not fail, until - she does not appear. Love is expensive. Give the Gift and love or continue to live an invulnerable wolf. But what he will choose - only God knows.

Tax Collector

1997
Seven Days in May
N/A

A film version of the famous Mukhlisov gang case. In May 2001, an audacious robbery of a collection car of one of the commercial banks of Almaty took place. During this attack, which took place 50 meters from the American embassy in Almaty, several people were killed. The attackers managed to seize the sum of 700 thousand dollars, after which they carried out a number of raids on exchange offices and organizations of the southern capital. The crime was solved fairly quickly, but it remained for a long time, both in the memory of citizens and law enforcement officers.

Seven Days in May

2011
Guardian of the Light
N/A

After the end of World War II, young Kazakh soldier saves an old German civilian from death. The old man gives him a bag with the most valuable thing that he has - a portable projector and some films. 30 years later the former soldier becomes a legendary figure. He travels to small distant villages and pastures to show films. But professional cinema theaters come to big and small cities replacing the soldier who moves to more remote villages.

Guardian of the Light

2018
The Old Woman
N/A

An old man and his old woman live in a remote Kazakh village. People call the old man Shorty Kairgali without malice. Kairgali has known his old lady, Kulpash, since high school. So they've been together for forty years. And maybe even more. Shorty also has two restless friends: Baybet and Saskebai, who were once in love with Kulpash. And then one day…

The Old Woman

2014
Junior
N/A

A drama about two orphan brothers who leave their home village and try to survive in big city.

Junior

2015
Who Are You, Mr. Ka?
8.5

After spending years in a notorious Thai prison, an enigmatic old man known as Mr. Ka returns to his homeland. His path crosses with Igor, a young man who becomes his accidental companion. Little did they know that this chance encounter would pull them into a web of dangerous international intrigue. To survive and protect Igor, Mr. Ka must use his lethal skills and sharp mind to unravel a deadly conspiracy, forcing his enemies to fall into their own traps.

Who Are You, Mr. Ka?

2010
The Old Man
5.8

This is a survival story - a Hemingway's 'Old Man and the Sea' as if written for our days.

The Old Man

2012
Kelin
6.0

A woman is led by her family to her new husband's home, to live with, presumably, his elderly mother and younger brother. Despite being forced into the marriage, she discovers that he is not such a bad catch after all but domestic bliss does not last long.

Kelin

2009
Late Love
N/A

In the center of the plot are three friends, three old men who swore in the name of the happiness of their friend Kaltay to marry him, no matter what. They do not suspect that soon they will have to get into the whirlpool of incredible, but fun adventures. Especially since love is the cause of everything.

Late Love

2010
Native Dancer
3.0

Aidai the baksy, or witch doctor, lives in the mountains and helps people. She uses mysterious actions to cure the sick and to give infertile couples children. As capitalist forces begin to encroach on tradition, the first casualty is any culture's most fundamental inheritance - land. The healer has to leave her land because the mob thinks the location is suitable for a filling station. A harsh battle between supernatural good and earthly evil ensues.

Native Dancer

2008
Abulkhair-Khan
N/A

The eighteenth century. The Kazakh people are at a crossroads: either disappear from the face of the earth as a nation, or become part of Russia. All this is the background on which the tragic love relationship of Khan Abulkhair and Hansha Bope unfolds.

Abulkhair-Khan

1993
Mustafa Shokai
N/A

A bipoic about Mustafa Shokai, a distinguished Kazakh politican of 1920's.

Mustafa Shokai

2008
Stranger
N/A

Orphaned by the brutal Soviet collectivization campaign of the 1930s, a young Kazakh boy takes to the mountains and lives amongst a pack of wolves.

Stranger

2015
Patchwork Quilt
N/A

The five–year-old hero of the film, a city boy Kenzhe, finds himself in the village with his grandparents, while his father is sorting out trying to establish his business. Here are the key moments of Kenje's growing up, full of vivid impressions.

Patchwork Quilt

2007
Beshmoynak
N/A

The story is about three old men living in a quiet village. This village seems to be lost in time. The grandfathers, who were once friends but became rivals because of their love for one woman, now spend their days sitting on a bench under a tree.

Beshmoynak

2022