Interview by Ron Holloway for Cinemaya, The Asian Film Quarterly, 54/55, 2002

Widely recognized as one of the most influential filmmakers and key political leaders in Central Asia, Rachid Nugmanov has directed only a handful of films, but two of them made cinema history. At the tender age of 35, he was elected First Secretary of the Union of Kazakh Filmmakers in 1989 - at that time an uncommon rise to authority in the ranks of Soviet cinema. His first feature film, The Needle (1988), was seen by an estimated audience of 25 million - an incredible box office sum by any standards. Over the past decade we have remained in close contact as he evolved from a revolutionary filmmaker to a political revolutionary. This interview took place at last year’s Viennale (19-31 October 2001), on the occasion of an all-embracing retrospective on the cinema of the Central Asian Republics titled Aus dem Herzen der Welt (From the Heart of the World).