Paralympian – an extraordinary Kazakh sport movie

Info Shymkent took part at the German premiere of the Kazakh sport movie Paralympian at Sony Center Berlin – a review.

We visited Berlin on this Monday afternoon. The reason for the visit was the invitation of the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Berlin to take part on the German premiere of the Kazakh film Paralympian at the Sony Center.

The event was organized in one of the most attractive places in Berlin – Potsdamer Platz. The event was held at the Film and Television Museum (Museum für Film und Fernsehen). So the place was chosen very well for a German film premiere. So, we decided to visit this museum first and see what’s in there. There was a lot of interesting film equipment and film scenes from the first days of the film history over the 1930s and 40s to the modern movies of our time. 

Let’s be honest. In fact, we are more skeptical about Kazakh films, projects, etc. And we don’t hide our opinion on this matter.

Before that, we had not heard about this film. When we received an invitation to the movie, we immediately looked for a movie trailer and watched it. The trailer was interesting and we decided to accept the invitation and take part on the German premiere of the movie. By the way, Paralympian is a indeed a new film and the premiere of the film took place on April 21st in Kazakhstan.

A little about the plot of the movie without huge spoilers:

The film is about a professional skier, played by Kazakh actor Askar Ilyasov, who wanted to succeed in life, but failed and lost his friend and was rejected by his girlfriend – and was unable to pursue his favorite sport – skiing. He was left with one leg, that is, an invalid. And looked at life with pessimism without hope and lived with depression. One day he met a man with an unusual team, and his life and his views on disability began to change. Does he come back to his favorite sport, to his dream?

In fact, when the film started, we were expecting something from this film and were afraid that it would just be a waste of time and remain unsatisfied. BUT! 

But this movie just put aside our fears and proved that it wasn’t a waste of time. We were delighted with this film and, of course, we realized that Kazakh cinematography was stepping into a new genre and directing can compete with confidence along with world cinematographic works.

The film is very well touched on the everyday problems of people with disabilities, how they have to face problems every day and how people treat them, and of course about sports with such people in general.

And also the social situation in Kazakhstan is well shown, especially the financial condition of the people.

The director of the film, Aldiyar Bayrakimov, is quite a young man. The organizers of the film worked well with the cast. All actors replenished each other and played, showed feelings and emotions sincerely. Everything was without artificiality. And this is proved by the stormy applause of the audience and drops of tears from the eyes while watching the film.

We can say that this is the first Kazakh film where we cried and did not hide our feelings and impressions.

The hall was really full of people, and everyone watched this movie, feeling every moment of the film. After the end of the movie, everyone sincerely applauded, showing that they really enjoyed it. Of course, the director and screenwriter of the film Aldiyar Bayrakimov and the actor of a minor role Zhalgas Zhangazin sat with the audience and watched the film together. After the end of the film, the audience wanted to share their impressions with them, and of course we shared our impressions as well.

Why do we call this film “Kazakh cinematography’s entry into a new genre” – because Paralympian is the first film of Kazakhstan where people with disabilities took part and openly showed some acute problems.

Kazakhstan is a producer of high-quality comedy and history films, but mostly only reaches an audience within the CIS. And unfortunately, they cannot compete with world cinematic works.

It would be great if Paralympian was translated into English, German, Kazakh and others with professional dubbing so that people around the world can watch this film on Amazon Prime and Netflix. And it would be great if there was an opportunity to buy DVD discs of the film Paralympian. 

It would be nice if there were a Kazakh translated and professionally dubbed version of the movie (because the original language of the film is Russian) that the people who are interested in learning the Kazakh language could listen and train their Kazakh by watching the movie.

We are very pleased that the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Germany organized this evening, and that they are always open to any opinions and wishes. Thank you!