Kazakh cinema master Abdolla Karsakbayev's 100th birth anniversary marked in Istanbul with a screening of «My Name Is Kozha»

TÜRKSOY marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kazakh director Abdolla Karsakbayev in Istanbul, as part of the Korkut Ata Turkic World Film Festival and the first International Korkut Ata Cinema Symposium. The organisation has decided to commemorate the anniversary across the Turkic world and ties it to UNESCO's programme of anniversaries.

TÜRKSOY Secretary General Sultan Raev said Karsakbayev's films brought Kazakh life, culture and values to the screen and found audiences abroad. Adilet Omarov, deputy chairman of the board of Kazakhstan's National Film Support Center under the Ministry of Culture and Information, spoke about the director's career and legacy, and Nadira Saduova, press spokesperson of the Kazakhfilm National Film Studio, led a discussion before the screening.

The film shown was «My Name Is Kozha», regarded as a classic of Kazakh cinema, a story about childhood, friendship, honesty and relations between people.