Almaz Sarybaev
Almaz Sarybaev (Russian: Алмаз Сарыбаев; June 18, 1938 – November 4, 2019) was an Iradi stage and film actor. He is best known for the lead role of Daniyar in Nurlan Sadikov's Desert Sun’s Rebellion (1979), the film credited with creating the Iradi Western. Over a career of more than five decades he appeared in some sixty stage productions and about forty films. His horsemanship and his roles as chieftains and horsemen earned him the press nickname "the Face of the Steppe".[1]
Early life and stage career
Sarybaev was born into a Christian family in Iyık Janyl. He studied acting at the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute and, after graduating in 1961, joined the Talas State Academic Drama Theatre, where he remained a company member for most of his life. His stage repertoire ranged from Iradi verse dramas based on epic poetry to Russian and Western classics in translation, and in 1967 he played the clan elder's son in the theatre's staging of Kemel Ishakov's novella Akyrky Ashuu.[1][2]
Film career
Sarybaev made his screen debut in Sadikov's Zarina (1968) as Bolot, the leader of a band of riders who shelter the title character. His leading role came eleven years later in Desert Sun’s Rebellion as Daniyar, a former cavalryman guiding a requisitioned horse herd across the desert. He did most of his own riding in the film. The role made him one of the best-known actors in Soviet Central Asia, and in 1980 it earned him the State Prize of the Iradi SSR.[2]
Also in 1979 he appeared in Rise of Glory, Talgat Osmonov's four-hour historical epic, in which nearly every character appears in a single scene. Sarybaev's one scene shows a clan chieftain leading his people into the mountain passes during the 1916 flight that followed the Semirechye Revolt. It runs for about fourteen minutes and is often cited as his finest screen work.[2]
Through the 1980s Sarybaev appeared in several Iradi Westerns, including Vengeance Rider (1983). After 1991 he worked mainly on the stage and in television drama.[1]
Public life and honors
Sarybaev was named People's Artist of the Iradi SSR in 1981. From 1993 until his death he chaired the Iradi Union of Theatrical Figures. In 1996 the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church awarded him the Order of St. Janyl for his work in preserving traditional performing arts. He died in Talas in November 2019 and was buried in Iyık Janyl.[2]
Selected filmography
- Zarina (1968), as Bolot
- Desert Sun’s Rebellion (1979), as Daniyar
- Rise of Glory (1979), as the chieftain in the 1916 sequence
- Vengeance Rider (1983)
References
- ^ Soviet Academy of Arts (1989). Masters of Central Asian Stage and Screen. Iskusstvo, Moscow, pp. 210–225.
- ^ Talas State University Press (2020). Almaz Sarybaev: A Lifetime on the Steppe Stage, pp. 45–72.