Kazakhstan's Shal flim to participate in Black Nights fest

Shal (Old Man) film by Kazakhstan director Yermek Tursunov has been included into official program of the Tallinn Film Festival Black Nights, Tengrinews reports citing Kazakhfilm studios. The Black Nights Festival will take place from November 15 to December 1 in Estonia. Shal by Yermek Tursunov will participate in the international competition program called EurAsia. The program includes the total of 22 films on European and Asian themes. Shiza film by Guka Omarova was the only Kazakhstan movie awarded with Black Nights festival's Grand-Prix. Tallinn Blach Nights is an annual film festival held in November in Tallinn, Estonia. It is one of the largest and most distinctive film events in the whole of Northern Europe. There are usually movies from well-known film-makers, discoveries of new talents and many world and international premiers at the festival. During its 15th edition in 2011 the festival screened more than 500 films (including 260 full length), bringing over 666 screenings to a record-breaking audience of over 73,000 people as well as over 500 industry guests and journalists. According to the festival's director and program manager Tiina Lokk, the fact that five films - including Yermek Tursunov's Shal - out of the 22 films listed for the EurAsia program have been nominated for Oscar Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category, testifies to the high level of competition in the EurAsia program. Besides Shal the films nominated for Oscar are Paradjanov (Ukraine), Circles (Serbia), The Great Beauty (Italy) and Borgman (Netherlands). Shal was released on October 11, 2012 and highly appreciated by the audience. The movie gained the Film of the Year title at the Choice of the Year awards in November 2012. Yerbolat Toguzakov played the lead part in the film, he was selected the Best Actor of Kazakhstan. Shal was also awarded with the Grand-Prix at the open film festival of CIS countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia Kinoshock-2013 and Yerbolat Toguzakov won the prize for the Best Male Role. Shal drama (produced by Kazakhfilm studios) is based on Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. The film tells a story of the family of an old man, his daughter-in-law and grandson, who live deep in the steppe. They have to learn to live together as there no one else around. They have to be able to forgive each other and be wise to hold on to the true values. It is important for the old man to teach his grandson the right priorities.