Film and Identity in Kazakhstan

In Film and Identity in Kazakhstan: Soviet and Post-Soviet Culture in Central Asia (I.B. Tauris, 2018), Rico Isaacs uses cinema as an analytical tool to demonstrate the constructed and contested nature of Kazakh national identity. By first tracing the evolution of Kazakh national identity formation and then analyzing data from individual interviews and the Kazakh films themselves, Isaacs demonstrates the multiple ways that Kazakh national identity has been cast and interpreted, both past and present. This book is essential reading for scholars of Central Asia, nationalisms and national identity, or those with a broader interest in film, Central Asia, or the study of nation building.

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Nicholas Seay is a PhD candidate at The Ohio State University.