Akan Satayev

Aqan Qarğambaiūly Sataev (Kazakh: Ақан Қарғамбайұлы Сатаев, born December 23, 1971) is a Kazakh film director, actor, screenwriter and producer. Satayev is named Honored Worker of Kazakhstan^[1] and is the laureate of State Award of Kazakhstan.^[2]

Satayev 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 Satayev graduated from Kazakh National Academy of Arts, Department of Cinema and Television.^[3]

While at university, Satayev played student Azat, the main character in Allazhar, a movie by Kaldybay Abenov about tragic events in Alma-Ata in December 1986. After graduation, Satayev 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.^[4]

In 2016 Satayev founded the Astana Film Fund to support young Kazakh directors and low-budget indie productions en masse.^[5] In the same year he shot 2 feature-length movies, Districts,^[6] a teenage crime drama set in the USSR, and The Road to Mother, a period drama about the Soviet collectivization period, the Eastern Front, and the Kazakh post-war years.^[7]

Satayev led Kazakhfilm, the largest movie studio in Kazakhstan from 2020 to 2022.^[8][9]

Year	Title	Original title
			Director	Producer	Screenwriter	Actor	Notes
2008	Allazhar	Аллажар				Y	Student Azat (main role)[10]
2007	Racketeer	Рэкетир	Y	Y		Y	Referee[11]
2009	Strayed	Адасқан	Y	Y			[12]
	Brothers	Ағайынды	Y				[13]
2011	Liquidator	Ликвидатор	Y
	My Darling (series)	Айналайын		Y			[14]
2012	Myn Bala	Жаужүрек мың бала	Y				[15]
2013	Bauyrzhan Momyshuly (TV series)	Бауыржан Момышұлы	Y				[16]
2015	Racketeer 2	Рэкетир 2	Y				[17]
	Hacker	Хакер	Y		Y		[18][19]
2016	The Road to Mother	Анаға апарар жол	Y				[20]
	Districts	Районы	Y				[21]
2018	Businessmen	Бизнесменыдер	Y				[22]
2019	Tomiris	Томирис	Y				[23]
2021	Boxer	Боксер	Y				[24]
2022	Dawn of the Great Steppe	Ұлы Дала Таңы	Y				[25]

• Honored Worker of Kazakhstan title conferred by a Presidential decree^[26]
• Laureate of the State Award of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Literature and Arts^[27]

• Akan Satayev at IMDb