“Before pursuing cinema, I studied programming for two years in Prague because my family didn’t believe in the prospects of a directing career. However, realizing that programming wasn’t for me, I returned to Kazakhstan and obtained a degree in directing.

Before becoming a director, I worked as a screenwriter on several projects, including the successful short film Epilogue, the Uzbek web series Admin, and the Kazakh feature film Zhabaiy. In those works, I always strived to be sincere and bring something new, despite using familiar structural solutions and tropes.

Rock Berkut is my first short film, into which I poured all my available resources, my soul, and my love for cinema. This film is not just a project for me, but rather the culmination of a long journey in which I have sought to find my voice as a director.”