Aliya Nazarbayeva, youngest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, is positioning herself as Kazakhstan’s eco-warrior-in-chief with a screening of her documentary Awakening, which opened the New York Eurasian Fim Festival on May 20.
The 34-minute film deals with the greening of Kazakhstan and draws heavily on her father’s “Green Bridge” initiative, a Kazakh-government led project that aims to boost green development by sharing research and ideas between developed and developing countries.
This move sees Ms Nazarbayeva branching out from the world of jewellery design, with her Alsara brand, into film production and environmental protection, but could this also be the start of a more active involvement in politics?
The Eurasian Film Festival runs until May 24 and has free screenings of films from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Bulgaria and Poland.
Kazaxia 