The history of Central Asian film has been traced back more than 70 years for various reasons. While earlier Soviet perspectives emphasized the cultural links between Russia and Central Asia including early Soviet documentaries shot in Kazakhstan, more recent views take pride in their film's longevity. Nevertheless, the first documentaries had a dis tinctly socialist feel and almost exclusively addressed the creation of new rail links and economic ties. The Central Asian film studios that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s largely produced documentar…