Peter Rollberg is professor of Slavic Languages, film studies, and international affairs at George Washington University.

Peter Rollberg’s history of Kazakh cinema, covering the period from its emergence in the 1920s to the country’s independence the 1990s, is not only the first comprehensive account of film art in Soviet Kazakhstan, but also a truly monumental and detailed survey of the stories on and behind the silver screen, the studio’s relationship with the center, and the appeal of various narratives to the audiences at home and across the Soviet land. Rollberg pays attention not only to the well-known names and films, but also to lesser-known topics such as children’s and youth films, professional training, and the peculiar role of Alma-Ata during WWII, when the country’s major studios and filmmakers were evacuated there. This book will make a fabulous companion and reference guide to Soviet Kazakh cinema.

• Chapter 1: The First and Second Birth of Kazakhstani CinemaChapter 2: Heroic Interlude in Alma-AtaChapter 3: The Third BirthChapter 4: The Mid-1950s: A Cautious EmancipationChapter 5: En Route to Complexity I: Capturing the PresentChapter 6: En Route to Complexity II: Capturing the PastChapter 7: The Searchings of Shaken AimanovChapter 8: Hits and Anti-HitsChapter 9: The New Status QuoChapter 10: State Cinema and Its SubversionChapter 11: Crisis and ReconstructionChapter 12: From Perestroika to Katastroika