From July 18 to September 12, the Tselinny Center for Contemporary Culture will present the Cinematic City film program. According to the organizers, it explores the multifaceted relationship between cinema and the city. Almaty residents will have the opportunity to see documentary and feature films, classics, and contemporary festival works. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

The program includes 9 feature films, among them the cult classic 'La Haine' starring Vincent Cassel, the documentary classic 'Koyaanisqatsi' by Godfrey Reggio, Dziga Vertov's 'Man with a Movie Camera', and the film 'Silence' shot in Dushanbe by Iranian master Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Also featured is the Kazakh drama 'Losing Virginity in Alma-Ata' by Zhanna Isabayeva, which sparked controversy in 2012 — during its release, some cinemas received threats for screening it.

Cinematic City is curated by Ulyana Toporovskaya, founder and program director of the Qara Film Festival, an international documentary film festival established in 2020.

'I noticed that in many films dear to me, I remember not only the characters but also the city itself: its rhythm, light, noise, sense of space — and how all this affects the dramaturgy and aesthetics of the film. That's how the idea of the Cinematic City program came about. Here, the city is not a backdrop but a significant participant in the story, just like its heroes,' Toporovskaya emphasizes.

Thus, each film becomes a separate way to observe how the city exists on screen and how cinema seeks forms to depict it: the city as a system, as a sensory experience, as a space of loneliness and connection, as social reality, as an experiment. According to the organizers, the program poses a simple, open question: how do the ways of seeing the city on screen change — and what do these changes say about modern life?

Schedule: - July 18, 18:00 — 'Koyaanisqatsi' (1982), dir. Godfrey Reggio - July 19, 15:00 — 'Happy End' (2024), dir. Neo Sora - July 19, 18:00 — short film screening: London in Focus - July 25, 18:00 — 'Where Are We Going?' (2021), dir. Ruslan Fedotov - July 26, 18:00 — 'History of Concrete' (2026), dir. John Wilson - August 1, 18:00 — 'Silence' (1998), dir. Mohsen Makhmalbaf - August 2, 18:00 — 'La Haine' (1995), dir. Mathieu Kassovitz - September 5, 18:00 — 'What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?' (2021), dir. Alexandre Koberidze - September 6, 18:00 — 'Losing Virginity in Alma-Ata' (2011), dir. Zhanna Isabayeva - September 12, 18:00 — 'Man with a Movie Camera' (1929), dir. Dziga Vertov

Ticket price: 2500 tenge. People with disabilities of groups I and II, as well as veterans of the Great Patriotic War, have free admission. Detailed information about the film program and tickets are available on the Tselinny website.