A Kazakh filmmaker, the director of the controversial movie "Kelin" (Daughter-In-Law), has been severely beaten in Almaty.
Ermek Tursunov was attacked on the evening of February 15 when he was leaving football practice and putting his bag in the trunk of his car.
His colleague, producer Aleksandr Vovnyanko, told RFE/RL's Kazakh service that Tursunov was not able to identify the assailants.
Four days before the attack, "Kelin," a film is about a young woman whose parents force her into marriage.was screened in an Almaty cinema for a small group of journalists. KazakhFilm, the major studio that produced it, had objected to the film being shown before its final edit.
Vovnyanko said the attack might have had nothing to do with the movie.