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.

Gulbibi v/o

Gulbibi is a very strong and

optimistic character. She is

a good role for Kazakh

women.

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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

(Newspaper man): It's

reflecting real life. These

kind of characters we can

see every day here in the

market.

10:37

(woman in kiosk): I think we

can learn something from it.

10:41

(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

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.

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.