Shiza - The movie about Kazakhstan

Thanks to Netflix I am catching up on movies that I wanted to see but they are so hard to find in Blockbuster. Anyways. Shiza is a movie about a boy in Kazakhstan. The story evolves in time right after the independence declaration (some people also call it the collapse of the Soviet Regime). Great movie by a female director. 4 international awards. It shows Kazakhstan at its most rural roots, something I have not experienced when I lived there because I actually lived in a city (Quaragandy). But it gives you an idea about Kazakhs, the nature and the whole Vodka thing.

On Thursday, someone who did not know my origins had called Kazakhstan "crappy" and after realizing that he just insulted my home country he corrected it to "hardship country". Well, I was glad he knew about the country since its only 15 years old and the guy was an American. And it made me realize how little people know about the country. I did teach a couple of kiddies about Kazakhstan in New York's public schools naively thinking that they were the ones that need education. Little did I know.

So...If anyone wants to educate themselves about Kazakhstan you can watch the movie, its rural Kazakhstan but it gives you some idea about people that live there. Better know little than nothing, right?

Rent it from Netflix...