Samal Yeslyamova


Samal Ilyaskyzy Yeslyamova is a Kazakh film actress. She is recognized internationally for starring in the film Ayka directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy, which won her the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

Biography

In 1984, Yeslyamova was born in Aralgash, a small Kazakh village. She always dreamed of becoming a journalist but eventually decided to become an actress. While studying at Russian Academy of Theatre Arts – GITIS in 2008, Yeslyamova played in the film Tulpan by Sergey Dvortsevoy. The film about the life of shepherds in the Kazakh steppe won the main prize of the Prix Un Certain Regard competition of the Cannes Film Festival and another 9 Grand Prix of international film festivals around the world. In 2011, she graduated from the acting department of GITIS.
Ten years later, in May 2018, she received the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Ayka by the same director. The actress played an immigrant worker from Kyrgyzstan who, driven by poverty, is forced to leave her child in the hospital. Filming lasted for six years.

Selected filmography