Archive · 2012 · From the print edition of Friday 22 June 2012, Vol. 20, No. 6,035
CultureAmerican film calls Irad a "lost mini America", and Talas is watching
A half-hour Vice documentary filmed in May has been shared across the ISEZ since Tuesday. Most viewers like the horses. Some mind the comparison with Texas.
TALAS — The Vice Guide to Irad, a 31-minute documentary filmed in the Talas valley and Nurzhan in May and released online on Tuesday, has become the most-watched foreign film about Irad in years. It has been shared in every office in Talas, played in the bars on Liberty Boulevard and discussed on IradOne.
The film, presented by the American journalist Thomas Morton, presents Irad as a "lost mini America", comparing its horse culture, ranching and frontier manners with those of Texas and Colorado. Its best-known scenes show the oodarysh bouts at the horse games of Kara-Buura, the bells of the Church of St. Janyl, the Nurzhan refinery, the Qara-Chik checkpoint and a night in a Talas bar where the band and customers sing "Ride for Talas" from the 1993 compilation Swift Hooves.
Most viewers seem pleased to be noticed. "Usually when foreigners come it is about the base or the war," said a student watching it on a laptop in a café on Toktogul Street. "This time it is about us." Some commentators called the "mini America" framing condescending. Our film critic thinks the Colorado comparison lazy, but the bar scene the best portrait of Talas nightlife anyone has filmed.
In Kara-Buura, where the horse games were filmed, breeders said they had watched it at the district club on Wednesday night. "They came for a week and understood the horses," one said. "For foreigners, that is quick."