Myn Bala

Kazakhstan is fortunate in having a historical enemy to depict as bad guys without any concern for offending them, since the Dzungar Khanate went out of existence in the mid-18th century, not long after the events of this film. The exterminator of the Dzungar Khanate was of course Qing-dynasty China on their eastern front. That fact is barely mentioned in passing when Sultan Abilkhair points to his map and says the Dzungars have been cut off in the east. That was China making war on them. That Kazakhstan raised a rebel army strong enough to take on the western front in the Dzungar Wars is the stuff of epic legend. The scene right before the climactic battle has various divisions announcing their representation of all different parts of Kazakhstan. This is perfect for raising patriotic feeling over Kazakh history, while there are no remaining Dzungars to take offense at being shown as the unremittingly bad guys. What was then Dzungaria is now part of Xinjiang and is inhabited by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Manchus, and Mongols as well as Chinese. It is at peace with independent Kazakhstan. This movie cast the Kazakhs in earth tones, mostly shades of brown, while the Dzungars are uniformly in black. The story is simple and easy to follow even without knowledge of this era of Kazakh history. A band of plucky teenagers becoming heroes of their nation. Go see it and feel good for Kazakhs.

this film was beautifully done in every way. good cast, good directing, good screenplay, good camera, good editing, beautiful locations and settings, good costumes and, very good music. i've never thought a movie out of a small central Asia country would be this good. the script was so well crafted that allowed the young heroes and heroines to freely perform with their hearts and spirits. this is a film that once you've watched it would always stay with you, the beautiful prairie, the remote snowy mountains, the horses, the galloping. the first viewer was right, this film is indeed much better than 'nomad', the fight scenes were especially good too.

I'm a sucker for nation-building mythos films, and this one totally fulfills this criteria. I have to admit that this was the first Kazakh language film I've ever watched. The costumery and landscapes were amazing (note to self, I must go hiking in Kazakhstan), but the plot was very transparent and the dialog equally stilted and predictable (This could also be due to the translation errors from Kazakh to English). The obvious love interest and tension between the families/clans/tribes with the expected resolution is also included. That said, I still really enjoyed it, as this historical epoch was unknown to me, and it was fun going down the rabbit hole researching the historical battles it depicted.

Im kazakh.

Story in my personal opinion ia taled nicely, but not perfect. Actors are good, but not great. But when I reccolect tales of my granny, which were told by here granny, I undestand how hard was that time to live, and how brave were my ancestors. If you want to get invovlved in kazakh traditions and history, that film is very good as a point of a start.

P. S.

Film is to be watched in kazakh language to get it totally and in a right way. The thing is our language is a bit different from english, and hell lot stuff just theoretically can not be translated correctly to get all the info given in one ward. For example, in english you call horse as a horse, in kazakh language there are 47 different wards to say horse(describing its colour, manner of moving, age etc). And that is only about one word, and here we talk about a movie. As an interpreter who watched both english and original versions I would say that almost of 70% of meanings in key scence were lost!

Watching "Zhauzhürek myng bala" -- also known as "Warriors of the Steppe" -- was a moving experience. It was also a novel experience, since I had never seen a movie from Kazakhstan -- and I gather most people haven't.

First, this is incredibly well done, with magnificent directing and camera work. The scenery is breath-taking. The scope of the story is more than fascinating.

Usually I have a problem keeping up with such a movie because of the chore of reading subtitles, but not this time.

The story itself reminds me a bit of "Taras Bulba," a conquered people trains itself to re-take its homeland.

The horsemanship also grabbed my admiration, and added to the acting, the directing, the superb cinematography, it totaled a motion picture experience I have not equaled in a very long time.

This movie is one to watch again and again. It's available on YouTube and I highly recommend it.

I also thank the reviewer of 30 November 2013 who was able to speak from personal experience of the beauty of Kazakhstan. You made watching this movie even better.