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 school, 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.