Love, Adventure, and Nationhood in the Everyday

The 2010 Kazakh television series Astana My Love puts forth a carefully crafted representation of post-Soviet Kazakh life, wherein the young are wealthy and citizens live a material existence equivalent to that of Western capitalist countries. Sponsored by the Kazakh Ministry of Culture through the state-run Kazakhfilm Studios, in joint production with the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, Astana My Love portrays Kazakhstan without a past— bereft of its nomadic history and long years of Soviet rule— focusing exclusively on the country's present and future. In Astana My Love, the future is bright and prosperous, largely a consequence of the vision and leadership of Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev.