Akan Satayev

Akan Kargambaevich Satayev (Kazakh: Ақан Қарғамбайұлы Сатаев; born December 23, 1971; Karaganda) is a Kazakh film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Honored Worker of Kazakhstan and laureate of State Award of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Akan was born to a family of actors, both his parents were recognized as People's Artistes of the Kazakh SSR and performed leading roles at Karaganda Drama Theater where he spent a lot of time. That theater became his first drama s ... chool, and in 1994 Akan graduated from Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Dept of Cinema and Television. While at the university, he played student Azat, the main character in Allazhar, a movie by Kaldybay Abenov about tragic events in Alma-Ata in December 1986. After graduation, Akan took part in various feature films and went into directing and producing advertising clips. Sataifilm, the company he founded in 2003, presented Racketeer, a crime drama and his debut movie, in 2007. In 2016 Akan founded Astana Film Fund to support young Kazakhstani directors and low-budget indie productions. In the same year he shot 2 feature-length movies - “Districts”, a teenage crime drama set in the USSR and The Road to Mother, a period drama about Collectivization in the Soviet Union, Eastern Front (World War II) and post-war years in Kazakhstan. Mr. Satayev led Kazakhfilm, the largest movie studio in Kazakhstan between 2020 and 2022.