Kazakhstan:
Soap on the Steppes
Dur: 14'13"
Reporter: Dominique Schwartz
01:00:00:00 |
Music, studio, Valentina being made up Valentina v/o |
For Valentina it's very hard now, because she is a professional, and the changes are testing her. |
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Gulbibi v/o |
Gulbibi is a very strong and optimistic character. She is a good role for Kazakh women. |
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Subtitle: 'Crossroads' Scene from 'Crossroads' |
Valentina: How's Camille? Gleb has been trying to see her since early this moming, but I wouldn't let him see hen It will take some time as Camille is very upset at the moment. Gulbibi:(ctying) She couldn't sleep all night She was crying and screaming, poor thing. We couldn't help hen |
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V/O |
This is 'Crossroads.' Central Asia's first soap opera - a Kazakh version of 'Neighbours'. The show follows the trials and tribulations of two families - an ethnic Kazakh family, headed by Gulbibi Umarov and an ethnic Russian family, headed by Valentina Platanov. As in every good soap, they've lived through it all... |
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V/O, Camille screaming as to be raped |
Rape, Mafia extortion rackets, shootings and neighbourhood. But 'Crossroads' is aiming to be more than just sheer entertainment. It's taken on the enormous challenge of helping Kazakhs come to terms with life after Communism. |
02:06 |
Int: Zauresh Ergalieva, 'Crossroads' Chief Script Editor |
For the past 70 years, when we all lived under a command economy, we all worked for the govemment. Lots of people lost their sense of responsibility. So now we have to releam everything from the beginning. |
02:31 |
Zauresh showing 'Crossroads' family tree |
Zauresh: (in English) It's our big Kazakh family, it's grandmother, it's mother.. |
02:36 |
V/O |
Zauresh Ergalieva is 'Crossroads' Chief Script Editor. A woman who relishes her new found freedom, writing about people, rather than party propaganda. |
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Int: Zauresh |
This freedom has given me wings. I've lots of enthusiasm about my work. Now we can talk freely about our problems. We can tell our people how to live in a new society. |
03:09 |
V/O, scene from 'Crossroads' |
'Crossroads' is trying to provide role models for Kazakhs through characters like Gleb - Valentina's son. He's the one who's been shot in the arm. Gleb: There's just two of us left, so what are we going to do? Shermil: I don't know, but I know one thing, we shouldn't be seen with the Umarov family. Camille needs some time before she can deal with you. |
03:36 |
V/O |
Gleb was once an engineer for a state enterprise. He had a regular pay cheque, a home and everything else provided by the government. Then, along came independence. |
03:50 |
Int: Gleb |
Along with Communism, everything collapsed. There were huge numbers of people without jobs. Gleb sold his car, he agreed with an old lady to rent her premises and with this little money, he started the whole thing. |
04:09 |
V/O, Gleb and Shermil clink glasses Int: Gleb |
Today, Gleb is still struggling to run his own cafe, pay off loans, not to mention save his marriage... still, he remains optimistic. It's not just Gleb but also myself. I really welcome these changes. I'm very happy it's happened. |
04:34 |
V/O, mountains, restaurant |
The story-line is not so far- fetched. On the outskirts of Almaty, under the trees which give the capital its name - The City of Apples - a similar real-life drama is being played out. |
04:51 |
V/O, Da Vanya cooking |
Da Vanya, Uncle Ivan as everyone calls him, runs a private restaurant in the orchard his grandfather once worked as a collective. Like Gleb, Da Vanya lost his job when the old Soviet structures of the planned economy were dismantled during 1992 and '93. |
05:12 |
Int: Da Vanya |
I used to be a driver. I played soccer and I used to do gymnastics. Now life is different, I am in a commercial business. I have to survive. I've moved from mechanics to meals! |
05:38 |
V/O |
Being fit and healthy has come in handy for Da Vanya. He's on his feet 18 hours a day - never home to watch 'Crossroads'! But he wouldn't have it any other way. |
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Int: Da Vanya |
You have to do everything for yourself from scratch. For example, buying food, budgeting, etc. You have to do everything by yourself. I think it's good for you. |
06:13 |
V/O |
Da Vanya and his family have big plans for the restaurant.. They'll build a Russian tea house: put in billiard tables; serve fermented horse milk in a traditional Kazakh tent.. Perhaps one day, they'll even be millionaires. |
06:27 |
Int: Da Vanya |
(Laughs while question is translated) We hope so, but it all depends on how well we work, Dominique. |
06:36 |
Int: Lev Tarakov |
'Crossroads' is teaching our people how to cope with the burdens of living in a new society and to become more self-reliant. |
06:53 |
V/O |
Lev Tarakov is a political analyst at govemment headquarters. So keen were the creators of 'Crossroads' to ensure they were on the right social track, they brought him on board as a series consultant. |
07:06 |
Int: Tarakov |
This series is teaching people how to start their own businesses, the type of difficulties you might face in Kazakhstan, how to fight the Mafia, which is really troubling business. All these issues are covered in 'Crossroads'. It's a kind of paradox but it's true. However, the idea of 'Crossroads' is not to force people to be an entrepreneur and not to teach them to be middle class, but to show them, by example, that they can become one if they want to. |
07:29 |
V/O |
Surprisingly perhaps, the initial force behind this new- age propaganda was not the Kazakh govemment, but the British. Like other foreign investors, the UK has its eye on resource-rich Kazakhstan. So, with $2 million from its overseas aid budget, the Brits flew in with the latest technology and some of soapdom's best.. Producers, writers, artists and technicians from 'Coronation Street' and Eastenders'. After a few months training - hey presto - soap on the Steppes. |
08:05 |
Int: Biken Rimova, actress (Gulbibi) |
I think we have to be thankful to the English for this. We are very grateful. They have taught our screen writers, our cameramen how to create projects like this. |
08:17 |
Excerpt from 'Ivan the Terrible' , Mosfilm Studios |
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08:29 |
V/O |
Not that the British had to start from scratch.. Soap may be new to Kazakhstan, but movies are definitely not. Sergei Eisenstein's Russian classic, 'Ivan the Terrible' was made here in 1943. Back then, the Kazakh Film Studios bustled with three thousand employees. Today, the studios only permanent inhabitants are the 130 people working on 'Crossroads'.. |
09:13 |
V/O, Cinema pictures |
Among them, the woman who plays Gulbibi - Biken Rimova, a veteran of early Kazakh cinema. For Biken, 'Crossroads' is a refreshing change. And she's developed a deep affinity with her character, Gulbibi. |
09:30 |
Int: Biken Rimova |
She's accepting democracy and freedom with pleasure. Her grandchildren are asking her, 'do you want to retum to Soviet times' and she answers 'no, I want to live in a democracy'. |
09:48 |
Scene in kitchen from 'Crossroads' |
Husband: Where are you studying? Girl: At the Medical faculty. Gulbibi: Good girl. I've always dreamed that one of my grand-children would become a doctor. My old man has been suffering for 10 years from a hemia. He's torturing all of us. Husband: Gulbibi! |
10:07 |
V/O Couple kiss |
Gulbibi is not typical of her generation, she's much more liberal. You wouldn't see this scene in too many Kazakh kitchens. |
10:24 |
VOX POPS |
(man with sunglasses): I don't like it. |
10:26 |
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(Newspaper man): It's reflecting real life. These kind of characters we can see every day here in the market. |
10:37 |
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(woman in kiosk): I think we can learn something from it. |
10:41 |
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(woman) If I don't have time to watch it, I'm upset about missing it. |
10:55 |
V/O, Accordion & ethnic faces in crowd |
'Crossroads' seems to have struck a chord with people of all ethnic backgrounds. And that's not a coincidence. One of the programme's aims is to encourage ethnic harmony. Kazakhstan was one of Stalin's human dumping grounds. As a result, ethnic Kazakhs today are matched almost one for one by ethnic Russians. Then there are the other faces in the crowd - Germans, Greeks, Turks, Koreans, Chechens, the list goes on and on... It's a happy balance at the moment, but one that could be easily tipped. |
11:32 |
Int: Zauresh Ergalieva |
If everything is 0K with the economy, then we shouldn't have any ethnic tensions. At the moment the different nationalities are being unified by having to build a new economy together. |
11:40 |
V/O, Scene from 'Crossroads' |
In 'Crossroads' the various ethnic groups are united in a more conventional way - via business partnerships and marriage. Camille Umarov, a Kazakh, is wedded to Gleb Platanov, a Russian. |
12:11 |
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Camille: Don't touch me. Mama, Mama take me home. Mum: We're going now, Pasha is waiting for us. Gleb: Camille has her own house and her own family. Mum: You should have thought about that earlier. |
12:32 |
V/O |
Their problems spring not from their different ethnic backgrounds, but from the normal frictions between husband and wife. In the end though, even those who create 'Crossroads' are realistic. They're not expecting it to perform miracles, just make a bumpy ride a little smoother... |
12:55 |
Int: Zauresh |
We are proud to work on the first Kazakh soap opera and now we have two wishes - firstly, we want our people to manage their problems and secondly, as film-makers we want to unify and create something new and satisfying. |
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V/O |
As twilight descends, Kazakhs across the nation settle in for the second weekly instalment of their very own soap. At the very least, Crossroads is providing jobs and a few laughs, at a time when both are needed. But at the very best, it could help convince people that life in post-Soviet Kazakhstan is for the better. But for which will prevail, well, as they say in the soaps, you’ll have to wait for the next exciting episode. |
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