Capital Synopsis 2
What does it mean for a nation to start anew? For Kazakhstan, the answer is to build Astana, the world's youngest capital, a utopian city of the future where skyscrapers and cranes stretch as far as the eye can see. Construction workers, TV reporters, and official tour guides spend their lives in the service of this city-in-progress. Capital, a documentary film by Maxim Pozdorovkin and Joe Bender, tells the story of Kazakhstan's new capital as it celebrates its tenth anniversary. Military parades, monumental architecture, song competitions, and human pyramids are only one side of the story; the other tells of thousands of migrants arriving to take part in their nation's new experiment. They come to Astana to build its golden monuments, to keep its markets open long after dark, and to push the city's frontiers deeper into the empty plains. Longtime residents watch as a glistening new city rises up across the river and their dusty Soviet village turns into a "pearl of the steppe." As fear over the global financial climate spreads, leaving construction sites empty and the future of Kazakhstan's dream city uncertain, the residents find themselves caught between the official vision of Astana and the realities of life on utopia's outskirts.
Filmed on location in Astana, Kazakhstan, Capital offers a glimpse into the ongoing development of a metropolis and the symbol of a nation.
Director | Max Pozdorovkin
Bio: Maxim Pozdorovkin is a director and screenwriter based in Cambridge, MA. Recent projects include the shorts "Not on Route 6" and "Each and Every Thursday", a promotional film released as part of the latest release from The Chicken Slacks. Other projects include Soviet Americanism, a 30-minute film appearing as a supplement the DVD release of Miss Mend, a 1926 Soviet adventure serial to be released by Flicker Alley. Maxim's next project is AK-47, a feature length documentary about the world's most popular gun and its role in transforming the nature of modern day military engagement.
Co-director / director of photography | Joe Bender
Bio: Joe Bender's emphasis on dynamic composition defines his approach to the image in Capital, his first feature. Capital tells the stories of citizens of Astana who experience the city in different ways; those experiences are filtered through the spaces they inhabit, and the visuals had to reflect that. This attention to characters' relationship to place builds on Bender's recent work, the shorts "Not on Route 6" and "Each and Every Thursday."
Third Party Productions
Third Party Productions is the production company of Joe Bender and Maxim Pozdorovkin.