The Gift to Stalin (2008)

A Jewish child deported to Kazakhstan is saved and adopted by Kasym, an old Kazakh railway-man. Kasym gives him a Kazakh name, Sabyr, that in Kazakh language means humble. The child grows up in the small Kazakh village along with other deportees Vera, a traitor's wife, and Ezhik a Polish doctor. The Soviet militia harasses the poor peasants and Vera suffered the harassment of a bully cop: Bulgabi. Finally Vera accepts the marriage proposal of Ezhik but the jealous Bulgabi tries to prevent the marriage. The result is a fight in which Ezhik shoots himself accidentally. The old Kasym decides that Sabyr is now old enough to go to seek his real parents. At the end Sabyr, now an adult, decides to return to the village, but the village no longer exists because it was destroyed by a Soviet nuclear test.
- Released
- 2008-10-06
- Genres
- Drama
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Status
- Released
- Directed / written by
- Ermek Tursunov, Pavel Finn, Rustem Abdrashev
- TMDB rating
- 6.4/10 from 8 votes
Cast
- Nurzhuman Ihtymbaev as Kasym
- Dalen Shintemirov as Sashka
- David Markish as Aleksandr Povzner
- Yekaterina Rednikova as Verka
- Waldemar Szczepaniak as Jerzy Dąbrowski
- Aleksandr Bashirov as Major
- Bakhtiyar Kozha as Balgabay
- Erbolat Toguzakov as Faty
- Kasym Zhakibayev as Shaman
- Sergei Yursky as Narrator (voice)
- Assel Sadvakassova as Young Kazakh Woman
- Turakhan Sadykova as Bansy