Samal Yeslyamova: I Need to Believe
Samal Yeslyamova is a Kazakh actress who this year won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her leading role in Ayka. Sergey Dvortsevoy, who produced the film, was born in Kazakhstan and now lives in Moscow. This was Samal’s second role after Tulpan, which was released in 2008.
In September, following on from her very public triumph, Samal took part in the opening ceremony of the Almaty Film Festival as well as starting work on a joint Kazakhstan-japanese film The Horse Stealers with Japanese producer Sedze Ichiyama.
Your first role in the film Tulpan helped film producer Sergey Dvortsevoy to win the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes. Your second role brought you international fame, recognition and personal success. This is quite an achievement, so how did you become an actress?
“At first I wanted to be a journalist, but in 2001, while I was thinking about my university courses, I chose entirely by accident an experimental acting course. I was told it was a very interesting course with an excellent teacher and I decided to give it a go, even though I always thought people could only become actors if they came from big cities like Almaty, or Russia or abroad. I decided to try it for a year and then change if I didn’t like it. I had only one night to prepare and I remember my aunt helping me. I could hardly believe it when I got a high score and was enrolled on the course. And it was indeed a fascinating course. In the first year we were involved in productions by the Kazakh Drama Theatre that had just opened in Petropavlovsk. When I was in the fourth year I heard, again by chance, that a producer from Almaty was auditioning for a new film and I decided to apply. I didn’t think I stood out during casting; I was asked what roles I would like to play and replied that I would accept any major role. Then three months later, when I had already forgotten about it all, I was invited to Almaty for a screen test. That was when I experienced real euphoria: I was going to the southern capital for the first time and by plane. To my surprise Sergey Dvortsevoy chose me for the role, even though I was much younger than my character. We should ask him why he believed in me, but this is how I got into Tulpan.
And headed to Moscow?
“By that time I was about to graduate from the Arts College and I needed to think about my future studies. I decided to take a risk and enroll at the GITIS (Russian Academy of Theatre Arts) even though, of course, I thought that only gods of the acting world studied there.
I even considered a profession related to the history of architecture, but my co-actor Askhat Kuchinchirekov convinced me to try my fortune in Moscow. I thought that even if I failed, at least I would know that I had tried, and if I didn’t try I would spend the rest of my life regretting it. In some incredible way I was enrolled, despite the fact that my Russian was poor and my voice very low. When they enrolled me, the teachers said that I should start by working on my voice as I couldn’t work in theatre with such a quiet voice.
How did you continue your cooperation with Sergey Dvortsevoy?
“He had been looking for a plot for his next film for a long time, and he had once read somewhere that women abandon their babies in Moscow maternity hospitals and afterwards come back and stay in the vicinity of these hospitals for ages. Perhaps for him, having been born in Shymkent and raised in the south, it was possible to understand how it is one can abandon one’s own child. This is how his idea developed and the story of Ayka from Kyrgyzstan emerged. He immediately decided that I would play the role. It took a long time to film it, as it was complicated to organise and not many of the actors were professionals.
What was the most challenging aspect of this character for you personally?
“First of all, I am not married and I don’t have children. I had to show the development of maternal feelings and instincts in some detail. Also, though my character is a person of few words by virtue of the way she was brought up and her Eastern mentality, she does not have a great emotional range. Another complexity
was initially amusing as I was supposed to play an exhausted woman, but at the time I was experiencing a burst of energy and was in good physical shape. The producer made me run until I looked exhausted. And I ran a lot. The film crew cracked jokes that I needed to go to the Olympic Games at Sochi. All these details made filming more challenging, so I really wanted our film to be acknowledged at Cannes. Not for fame, but because our hard-working crew deserved recognition. Of course, my award was not earned just by me, but by the entire film crew. It doesn’t matter how superb an actor’s performance might be, filmmaking is all about teamwork.
You were born in Kazakhstan, studied in Moscow and achieved success with a Russian film. What do you consider yourself, a Kazakh or Russian actress, and where do you see yourself in the future?
“I am often asked this question. Many people are saying that I have now set my sights on conquering Hollywood, but I think that art has no borders. The point is not to conquer, search or head off somewhere else looking for happiness, but to have an opportunity to work with a team of professionals on interesting, deep and rich material.
Aren’t you concerned about becoming imprisoned in one role, of being typecast?
“Of course that is a possibility. It is very hard to completely disguise your own nature or responses. In the script of Ayka my character was described as tougher, stronger and more taciturn, but unwittingly she emerged as a softer character and it was just the way it happened. Of course, I didn’t play myself, but my natural qualities were reflected in this character in one way or another. Acting has strict criteria and requirements and you can’t change that, but neither is it possible to predict or foresee something ahead of time. For instance, I could never have assumed that
the first film I acted in would get to Cannes and that my second would bring me the Best Actress award.
Don’t you wish to seize the moment and make the most you can out of this triumph?
“I have never raced after every available opportunity because I believe that if something should be mine it won’t get away, and I don’t want to stop striving for excellence. From the bottom of my heart I want to do something that is true.
News about your victory went viral in Kazakhstan. We were all delighted to see you on the red carpet wearing Kazakh national dress. Tell us about it.
“I thought that since Kazakhstani actresses have never been on the red carpet for the main competition I should bring a dress with national elements. I asked our producer Gulnar Sarsenova to bring a few outfits. During the fitting we came to a joint decision and I have no regrets about my choice.
Your life is probably now divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’?
“Yes, I am getting much more attention and giving many more interviews. Each time I seem to say the same things, but every journalist, like a producer, makes me go through events in a new way. I was gifted an apartment in my native city of Petropavlovsk. My salary has increased slightly, but it has never been what is most important to me. Anyway, I will spend money but a film, a role, will remain. I really want every role I play, and story told in a film, to be real and sincere and one that I and the audience believe in.”