“The Gift to Stalin” Screened at TUFS in Collaboration with Embassy of Kazakhstan

February 21, 2019

On Thursday the 18th of October 2018, a screening of “The Gift to Stalin” (“Подарок Сталину”), a film set in 1949 Soviet Kazakhstan, was held by TUFS Cinema as their “Kazakh Film Feature” in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Japan in Room 227 of the Research and Lecture Building.
Before the screening, a talk was given by Central Asian Studies specialist and TUFS lecturer Shizuo Shimada (Institute of Global Studies). In this talk, basic explanations were given on the geography, economy, ethnic groups and religions of Kazakhstan, along with an explanation of the situation during Soviet times.
While this screening did not have Japanese subtitles and was instead shown in Russian with English subtitles, many people came from both inside and outside of TUFS to see this film. Those who watched the film left comments such as “the pre-screening talk helped me to understand the film on a deeper level”, “it was the first time watching a Central Asian film for me, it was great” and “I want more people to watch this film”.