CINEMA AS BRANDING - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 174

INTRODUCTION
When the Soviet Union went into its death throes, no one thought of Ka-
zakhstan, the last socialist republic to break away, as a state that would
make a major breakthrough in economic development, outpacing Russia,
its former boss, and the countries of Eastern Europe. Initially regarded
as a soap bubble blown by global ambitions in the energy-rich Caspian
Basin, its success has revealed sound economic and political strategies
that paved the way for continued economic growth. Nevertheless, oil has
been a major factor behind the country's 'miracle,' significantly informing
public culture and identity of this newly emerged nation. And yet - neither
the impressive transformation from a designated 'bread basket' within the
Soviet division of labor into a player on the global oil market with a riz-
ing economic profile, nor the earlier decision to dismantle the country's
nuclear arsenal, or the contribution to greater regional cooperation and
security - helped to shape Kazakhstan's global image, which remained, in
an international view, an obscure place in Russia's backyard.
Such deficiency in the world's perception has not been overlooked by
the Kazakhstan's savvy leadership striving to reposition the country within
the global political economy. They embarked on the task of image-making
in a comprehensive manner: trained Kazakh astronauts, dressed Olympic
teams, sent troops to Iraq, and patronized global media networks that run
front-page PR campaigns, introducing the country to the world. However,
'Nation branding' has proved to be a difficult task. Aware of the situation,
President Nazarbaev, the mastermind of the Kazakhstan's economic re-
covery and its only leader since 1991, proposed something else, a public
diplomacy project that he thought would instantly put a popular spotlight
on his country: a 'blockbuster' cinema.
The subtext of this project has been somewhat similar to cultural activ-
ism films made by subaltern indigenous groups, trying to disseminate their
views and assert control over their images distorted by colonialism (Gins-
burg et al., 2002). But unlike, for example, Tibetan or Palestinian activ-
ists who use film to give international visibility to their causes, which has
become a recognized esthetic strategy to attract public attention and gain
sympathy in places otherwise removed and disconnected, Kazakhstan's
project was driven by a different agenda. Packaged as a commercially at-
tractive product, the film was to let the world know that Kazakhstan is
no longer a resource frontier whose only value is extractable, nonrenew-