Akan Satayev

Akan Kargambaevich Satayev Kazakh Ақан Қарғамбайұлы Сатаев born December 23 1971 Karaganda is a Kazakh film director producer screenwriter and actor Honored Worker of Kazakhstan and laureate of State Award of the Republic of Kazakhstan Akan was born to a family of actors both his parents were recognized as Peoples Artistes of the Kazakh SSR and performed leading roles at Karaganda Drama Theater where he spent a lot of time That theater became his first drama school and in 1994 Akan graduated from Kazakh National Academy of Arts Dept of Cinema and Television While at the university he played student Azat the main character in Allazhar a movie by Kaldybay Abenov about tragic events in AlmaAta in December 1986 After graduation Akan took part in various feature films and went into directing and producing advertising clips Sataifilm the company he founded in 2003 presented Racketeer a crime drama and his debut movie in 2007 In 2016 Akan founded Astana Film Fund to support young Kazakhstani directors and lowbudget indie productions In the same year he shot 2 featurelength movies Districts a teenage crime drama set in the USSR and The Road to Mother a period drama about Collectivization in the Soviet Union Eastern Front World War II and postwar years in Kazakhstan Mr Satayev led Kazakhfilm the largest movie studio in Kazakhstan between 2020 and 2022