His films have been shown all over the world and he is especially popular in Albania, where they were among the few western films allowed to be shown during the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha.

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The Chinese market is large enough that films made there don't need Western appeal to make big money.

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At last year's Karlovy Vary film festival, the Czech spa town hosted a two-day seminar on Kazakh films which reignited western appreciation.

ECONOMIST: The Kazakh film industry