Millions of Tenge Spent on Films No One Saw

Almaty prosecutors have inspected the budget finances allocated to support national cinema from 2019 to 2023. Serious violations were discovered.

One such example is the film "Choice," which was fully funded by the state (500 million tenge was allocated) but never released. The prosecutor's office notes that this is contrary to the law. According to the law, films that have received state support must be released for screening.

The state did not receive a 20% income from the film screening. The film "Tyrnalar" was also not released despite financing (421 million tenge). As of 2019, no monitoring system has been implemented to track data on film screenings and tickets.

During the inspection, cases of conflict of interest in the expert council were also revealed. Council members included producers and directors whose films received funding.

The deputy chair of the Committee of Culture and the deputy chair of the Board of the State Center for the Support of National Cinema were found liable for disciplinary violations.

Original Author: Artem Volkov