Being a part of the Soviet Empire when the Berlin Wall fell Kazakhstan declared itself an independent democracy but not having much of a history of democracy it quickly slipped back into the comfortable ways of totalitarianism.
It was the 19July2018 murder of Kazak 25-year-old figure skating Olympic bronze medalist (Sochi 2018 Olympics) Denis Ten in Almaty that lit the fuse to simmering dissent in Kazakhstan. Police were used to solidify totalitarian rule by tracking, spying, harassing and imprisoning anyone criticizing the regime. Ten’s murder sparked a backlash amongst political opponents of the regime and also amongst the non politically active citizenry outraged over the daylight murder of Ten by two assailants who were in the midst of stealing his car mirrors. Citizens were outraged over the lack of police response to emergency calls, the failure to press charges for petty crime, failure to apprehend criminals and bribery. Each of assailants received an 18-year prison sentence.
Filmmaker Katerina Suvorova captures the rise and fall of a movement called “Reform the Police” which transcended the issue of police reform into a wider form of political opposition. Suvorova’s camerawork and narration reveal the fragmented and tenuous nature of the leadership of Reform the Police and the omnipresent security services watching, filming, arresting, beating to the point on January 22, 2022 when 241 demonstrators were killed and thousands detained and many of those tortured. The presidential election results were part of the protest. One queries if the lack of democratic traditions fostered an inability to mount a coherent and unified political opposition. Fascinating to watch how a criminal event, being the murder of Denis Ten, sparked outrage against the police which steamrolled into a wider political protest.
A strong resemblance of Kazak and Belarus opposition to the left-over Soviet hack leaders.
Hot Docs screenings of “Qoryqpa” will be on 28April2024 and 1May2024.
RKS 2024 Film Rating 73/100.
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