“Amangeldy” (Amankeldi) is the first Kazakh sound film, shot in 1938 by the Kazakh cinematographers of the Alma-Ata Newsreel Studio, the firstborn of Kazakh feature film. 

A film is dedicated to the events that took place in Kazakhstan in 1916-1919. It tells about the beginning of tsarist policy, when the mobilization of the Kazakh people for earthworks leads to an uprising of Kazakhs during the First World War.

The plot focuses on the fate of Amangeldy Imanov (1873-1919), one of the leaders of the Central Asian Uprising (1916) and the struggle for the Soviet power in Kazakhstan. He is a former lone rebel, who was the first to speak out against the Tsar’s punitive units. In 1919, Amangeldy became the military commissar of the Steppe Region and was killed by the counter-revolutionaries.

The film was restored at the Kazakhfilm movie studio in 1966.

Genre – historical drama

Film director – Moses Levine 

Authors of the script: Beimbet Mailin, Gabit Musirepov, Vsevolod Ivanov.

Major cast: Yelubai Omirzakov, Shara Zhiyenkulova, Seraly Kozhamkulov, Kurmanbek Zhandarbekov, Kapan Badyrov, Kanabek Baiseitov.

Operator – Kecho Nazaryants 

Composers: Akhmet Zhubanov, Mikhail Gnessin. 

Duration: 84 min. 

Year of release – 1938 

The film is available at the link: https://youtu.be/1z5SqcfgGb0?si=6IJfxK8X9e5yoMBK