The HFPA met Oliver Stone in Nursultan, Kazakhstan, and later at the Rome Film Fest in October to talk about his involvement in the new documentary Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, which is now showing at the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. The film, available both as a feature-length version and as a six-hour series, is written, directed and produced by Igor Lopatonok, and Stone figures as the interviewer of Kazakhstan’s former President, considered the founder of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the larger-than-life and controversial subject of this intriguing project with the music score composed by Golden Globe nominee Carlo Siliotto.

Qazaq unravels the history and story of President Nazarbayev, the first leader of the Republic of Kazakhstan, exploring the challenges, misconceptions, and difficulties in being the last of the Soviet Republics to declare independence, as well as the obstacles faced in reconstructing a nation from scratch, still suffering from the Soviet traumas of the 20th century.

After 30 years as President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev opens his country and his heart to Oliver Stone. His unique, never heard stories about the challenges of being a Kazakhstan leader are balanced with a deep exploration of Nazarbayev’s family dynamic and his purpose in life. Through his eyes, we see the story of the collapse of the Soviet Union and what it meant for a nation to be one of the major centers of nuclear weapon development in the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan used to be a nuclear powerhouse, the fourth most powerful arsenal in the world, home to 12,000 nuclear units. The Semipalatinsk Test Site, also known as “The Polygon,” in the Northeastern part of Kazakhstan, was the primary testing venue for Soviet Union’s deadly weapons. But Nazarbayev made a fateful decision, one which changed the course of history and humanity: all of the equipment for production and testing was dismantled, and he gave all nuclear weapons back to Russia.

“I spent a lot of time with Nursultan,” Stone says, “and I can only say that I was certainly impressed by this man. 40 years in power, and he seems to me serious.”

How did this movie come about?

As you know, I care about East-West relations. I certainly thought Ukraine was a pivot in those relations; now we are talking about another country that’s very important in relations between Russia and China and the US and that’s Kazakhstan, which is a gigantic country, with geopolitical and crucial importance between China and    Russia. Nazarbayev, who I interviewed and got to know, is not much known as a world figure. He’s a quiet man, relatively modest, but he plays behind-the-scenes importance. For many years he was the boss of the Kazakhstan Communist Party. He rose up from humble beginnings as a steelworker and became a party boss and then eventually top boss and finally a trusted leader worldwide. Though he is not the president now, he is obviously the founding father, he is the guy they all look up to. I think he is a smart man, he sees, like the Chinese, ahead and understands that without education you cannot make a new society. But let’s not kid ourselves. This is not a democracy; it is capitalism maybe.

You talk about the geopolitical balance between Russia, China and the United States.

Those were strong man countries. That’s the way they are. And it’s not going to be some democracy or whatever you call it over there. It’s power. And Nazarbayev was challenged and was pushed on several occasions. But I liked the way he kept his balance between China, Russia and Ukraine. Compare Ukraine to Kazakhstan, both big countries, part of the Soviet Union. Look what happened in Ukraine. That is a “shitocracy”. That went the way of shit because of the West. And I have doubts about the democracy in the West. The West pushed Ukraine into a ridiculous position of trying to be Western and they’re not and they lost their integrity as a country. They’re now pursuing people for being against their regime in all the worst ways. They’re throwing them in jail, calling them traitors. Anybody who tries to back a moderate position in Ukraine is called a traitor.

Not in Kazakhstan?

No, because in Kazakhstan you have people who are pretty extreme too at times, but they manage to weather it by not going as crazy, mostly because of Nursultan. They didn’t go crazy and jail a lot of people; there’s always going to be people in jail for political reasons, always in any country in the world, United States included. I don’t kid myself, but they didn’t have the massive disruption of life that occurred in Ukraine. 

What about freedom of the press?

Frankly, if you look at journalism in America, most of the good work is being done off the internet. The so-called upholders of truth in society like The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal do some very good work, but they also anoint the lie. They keep the lie going, whether it’s the Kennedy killing or whether it’s a hundred different issues. And when the upholders, the American press, talk about fake news, I laugh. They’ve been giving us so much fake news for decades, starting at the end of World War II. We can talk about the atomic bomb and why that was dropped by the Americans supposedly to destroy Japan at the end. It wasn’t. It was clearly to scare off the Soviet Union and win this battle right away that they had set up in their minds, that we are being threatened by Russia. So, don’t talk to me about the sacredness of American media. They’re fraudulent too, but they also do good work.

What role do you think Kazakhstan will have toward peaceful relations in Eurasia?

A huge role, but it’s not the only role. The world is always going to be in this turbulence, as he called it, and it takes strong and wise leaders, people like Nursultan, who dealt with a few crises of his own. He certainly knows the dangers.  I do believe in China. I believe that they want peace and I do believe that they want trading power and they’re getting it and nothing’s going to stop them. And if we keep threatening them, they’re going to keep building up their military, but it’ll always be a defensive military.