MÄMBET Kazakhstan's Answer to Kneecap

In recent years, Kazakhstan has been experiencing a linguistic awakening. A country as vast as the whole of Western Europe. A country I love — and where I began my career as a foreign correspondent.

In this episode I speak to Suinbike Suleymenova, a visual artist and filmmaker from Almaty. She spent three decades not speaking her own language. Then she made a film about it.

МАМБЕТ: Тіл мәселесі — or Language Matter — is Kazakhstan's answer to Kneecap. A raw, hybrid documentary that follows Suinbike as she films a generation of young Kazakhs reclaiming their linguistic heritage. The film takes its title from a Kazakh word that became a slur — mambet, meaning redneck, villager, uncultured. By reclaiming the word, Suinbike reclaims the right to her own language.