Kazakhfilm, Sataifilm to start work on historical film about Tomiris

ALMATY. KAZINFORM Kazakhfilm Studio in association with Sataifilm started work on Tomiris, the Queen of Massageteans, Kazinform correspondent reports with reference to the studio.

The large-scale historical film was ordered by the Ministry of Culture and Sports. General producer of the movie is Aliya Nazarbayeva ("The Road to Mother"), director is Akan Satayev ("Racketeer", "The lost", "The liquidator", "Zhauzhurek Myn Bala", "The Road to Mother").

The film depicts events which took place in 6th century BC, when the Saka tribes lead by the Queen of Massageteans Tomiris, gave a crushing rebuff to Persian king Cyrus II. The Greek historian Herodotus claims that "The battle which followed I judge to have been more violent than any other fought between foreign nations."

"The idea of a film about Queen Tomiris belongs to Aliya Nursultanovna. I and my team, after successful cooperation with her on "The Road to Mother" with great pleasure and great responsibility, begin work on another large-scale joint project. At the moment, we started pre-preparatory work: developing and writing a screenplay, planning the production of the project, forming a film crew, consulting with scientists, studying historical materials, preliminary locations selection.", said director Akan Satayev.

He also noted that soon the studio will announce a nationwide casting. Before the shooting, all actors will be trained in horse riding, archery, and other military skills.

Filming will begin in October 2017 in Kazakhstan. Tomiris' screenwriters are Aliya Nazarbayeva and Timur Zhaksylykov. Kazakhstan's leading creative forces will be involved in the production together with foreign experts in script doctoring and computer graphics.

According to Akan Satayev, Tomiris will also attract great attention internationally. The Kazakh premiere is scheduled for December 2018.