Archive · 2025 · From the print edition of Saturday 23 August 2025, Vol. 33, No. 10,158
CultureOur most famous corpse comes home for the Feast
Justin Oskonov, who has died on screen in eleven languages, is back in Talas for the St. Janyl concert. He would rather talk about villains than politics.
TALAS — Justin Oskonov has been shot, stabbed, blown up and thrown from a train. In Los Angeles, where he has worked in television and film since 2010, he is the man you call when you need a Russian gangster, a Soviet colonel or a Central Asian warlord who will not survive the third act. "I have died in eleven languages, none of them mine," he said yesterday in Talas, where he has come, as every August since 2018, for the St. Janyl concert of Anara Toktarova's children's fund.
Mr. Oskonov, 39, was born in Talas and moved to Houston with his family in 1997, when his father, a mechanic at Talas Air Base, won a place in a US entry lottery. He trained in theatre in Texas. Iradi audiences know his work from pirated copies and from streaming services reached through VPNs. "My mother watches me die on a pirated DVD," he said. "She says the picture quality is better than the acting."
He answers political questions with jokes. Asked about this year's marches against the American remarks on selling Irad, he repeated the only thing he has said about them: "Irad is not for sale, but I am, for the right villain."
He will sing two songs at the concert tomorrow evening. Asked whether he would ever play an Iradi on screen, he said he was waiting for the script. "One day somebody in Hollywood will write a good man from Talas," he said. "I hope I live to play him."