Political Cinema in Kazakhstan

Analyses how Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s absurdist cinema exposes corruption and power in authoritarian Kazakhstan, revealing both the potential and limitations of film as a form of political resistance.

What can political cinema achieve under authoritarianism? Political Cinema in Kazakhstan explores this question through the films of acclaimed Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov, whose distinctive blend of absurdism, satire and visual allegory has established him as one of the most original voices in contemporary world cinema. Although scholarship on Kazakh cinema has largely examined questions of nationhood, identity and post-Soviet transformation, comparatively little attention has been given to how film engages with power itself. This book addresses that gap by examining how Yerzhanov’s cinema interrogates authoritarianism through its representation of corruption, violence, inequality and everyday life.

Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s concept of the dialectical image and bell hooks’ work on counter-hegemonic narratives, the book develops an original framework for analysing political cinema in authoritarian contexts. Rather than treating politics as something conveyed simply through plot or dialogue, it demonstrates how Yerzhanov’s films construct political meaning through recurring images, fractured temporalities, moments of shock and interruption, marginal characters and highly stylised cinematic form. These dialectical images expose the tensions, contradictions and moral ambiguities that sustain authoritarian rule while opening spaces for critical reflection.

At the centre of Yerzhanov’s cinematic universe lies the fictional village of Karatas. More than a recurring setting, Karatas functions as an allegorical landscape in which corruption, exclusion, violence and absurdity converge. Through dark humour, irony and the logic of the absurd, Yerzhanov transforms the particular realities of Kazakhstan into a cinematic language that speaks to broader questions about power, authority and political imagination.

The first book-length study devoted exclusively to Yerzhanov’s work, Political Cinema in Kazakhstan offers an original contribution to film studies, political theory and Central Asian studies. By bringing Benjamin’s dialectical image into dialogue with bell hooks’ account of counter-hegemonic storytelling, it advances a new way of understanding how cinema reveals the contradictions of authoritarian power and expands the possibilities of political critique.