I’ve just recently come back from a documentary shoot in South East Kazakhstan (100 miles from China, 20 miles from Kyrgyzstan), titled ‘The Last Saint’. The shoot revolved around an elderly woman who’s settled a community around a mountain rumoured to be radiating with holy energy, and the strangers coming from far & wide to seek help or treatment for all sorts of problems or conditions.
We were out there for two weeks and lived among the community for that period of time (sleeping in a general dormitory with freshly cut sheep skins occasionally rolled around people in the beds next to ours), ate a lot of freshly sacrificed lamb, drank tea about 14 times a day, used refreshingly basic ‘facilities’ and also homemade saunas… Very nice team to work with, and a few excellent situations & encounters that will stay with me for a long time. I only wish my Russian (let alone my Kazakh) wasn’t just limited to Da, Niet, Spasibo, Horosho, Kagdila, Priviet, and the odd bit of swearing…!
