Dimash’s latest video clip was released in August 2020, of which he is also a co-director.
This has been number one in the public vote on Gakku Tv (Almaty) for weeks.
He has been featured on U.S. MTV Friday Live youtube since October as the first singer to present a clip in Kazakh and where he has been among the first in an international poll from around the world since the beginning.
The covid outbreak raging in Kazakhstan even in the summer, which caused the deaths of many people, gave a sad topicality to the completion of the song and the clip. There was a struggle to put everyone to the test to curb the epidemic.
What can artists do in a situation like this, right in the middle of a tragedy in front of their eyes? At every age, they have reacted and are reacting to what they lived in, what was and is around them. They express their feelings in their own artistic way and voice, shake up their contemporaries and commemorate significant events, so that posterity can feel something of the mood at the time, although they may not be able to really appreciate this effect during creation. They proclaim to the world that it is difficult to bear the sight or experience of pain, suffering on a human scale. It is a prayer and a blessing (bata) for the family, the nation and all the peoples of the Earth. It gives a heartfelt, broken, but still, strength, encouragement, optimistic end-trusting faith.
Every moment of the video, its whole structure, points from the deep, black, mourning to the bright, hopeful future, both visually and musically. Even the very first frame shows this: it guides the eyes, black at the bottom, snow white at the top, here even the whole video looks black and white, without colors. The mixing of the present geographical landscape and the historical images can mean the intertwining and repetition of the past and the present in the sufferings of the people for their survival.
While taking a bird’s-eye view of the country’s beautiful landscapes along with historical scenes, the short introduction by writer Roza Mukanova, a famous Kazakh actor, Isbek Abilmazhinov interprets the significance of the story in a dramatic tone:
Great Steppe...
Where the lands of four quarters meet, I’m talking about.
Altai and Atyrau Jaiyq and the Ile-Alatau and Saryarka – the golden age of the vast lands where I was born, I’m talking about.
The cradle of the nomadic Turkic people, the Great Steppe, I’m talking about.
Oh, silent world, do not hold your breath!
You have generations that have not lost in the tumultuous struggles of colluctation and fights.
Nor the changing world can it deprive of its values, its nature is shockproof, its soul dwells in a noble host.
The Great Steppe has spirit, what starngers cannot know and they cannot feel.
The text fits exactly to the images you see. The battle scenes in the wake of the history of the Greek historian Herodotus refer to the battles of the determined nomads of the great territorial and tribal unification of the 6th century BC: the massage (tribal) queen Tomiris defeated the Persian king Cyrus Great. Both Darius and Alexander Great only reached the Syr-Darya River with their campaign. The finds of this Scythian culture were found in the vicinity of Almaty, in the valley of the river Ili, and their art is characterized by the predominance of animal figures. But it can indirectly refer to all the struggles fought that their people have had to go through over the millennia.
In Kazakhstan, respect for their ancestors is of great importance, they still preserve the memories of their history and keep alive in their traditions, which provide strength and a solid basis for maintaining their national identity. This can serve as an example to any other nation.
This is how the clip starts, placed in a geographical and historical setting in time and space. Even on the cruel battlefield, the proud and strong eagle, a symbol of freedom and independence, and what can be seen in their national flag today, appears in gold. The clouds cast a slowly expanding, ominous shadow over the landscape, though we can only guess the sunshine.
Then the wolf will emerge as their totem animal, a symbol of courage and devotion. According to the legend, they come from a female wolf (analogous to the Roman Romulus and Remus), which, along with the eagle, is surrounded by the lord of the great steppe and has special reverence. He closes his eyes as if to close his perilous past - here we enter the present and either do not want to see the suffering, dying, gasping for air, or wisely, indulgently surrender to the sounding sacred, Kazakh instrument, the kobyz is always a painful, grieving voice.
According to shamanic legends, kobyz and it’s music can banish evil spirits, disease, and death. On the sounding instrument we can also see traditional carvings: at the top, especially masculine, symbolic signs designed to increase the will to live, to increase compassion, to reduce the pain of grief, to create prosperity, success and luck under the strings, to reduce external influences. Arriving today in the Alatau Mountains not far from Almaty, details of the picturesque Kolsay Lake appear, still highly unsaturated, with their own shadow colors, in a shade of gray, as if fog were enveloping the green landscape.
The title of the song appears here written in gold letters on the top view of the lake, as if they really had a convex surface made of gold and they swim upwards out of the picture towards the viewer, giving the impression of being sprinkled with tiny candies, with good wishes.
The improvisational play of the curious artist Olzhas Kurmanbek slowly descends into a deep, overcast but soft F minor tone when we finally see the lake completely surrounded by mountains and Dimash in the middle - as a protective mother's womb, perhaps symbolizing the homeland. - and after a long pictorial wandering, she begins to whisper the pain in her heart. There is a gap between the clouds where you can see the sky, perhaps his voice is heard, which so gently and softly begs for hearing, for the strength of the nation. White flowers in the wind like tiny angels landing on the water, almost idyllic of the scene.
Even if tears have touched your eyes, You do not need to hide your feelings. With love for you my homeland, I pray for peace on earth (raises his arms here as well) What is the meaning of life without trials? Difficulties temper, And the tempered cannot be broken... But only time will heal everything... (Sigh echoes in the mountains for the sick - for humanity)
Dimash's wonderful, unobstructed voice blends into the silence of the landscape. Breathable, almost stifled like everything now, the image is still gray. It's like groping in the fog to find a way out. It was as if we could only hear his breath, his sighs flowing from his soul among the mountains, fading fading, slowly dying in the distance. Where does his voice go? Patients struggle with breathing… ..will the will to help them reach them? Will prayer reach heaven?
The chorus sounds in a new place, a bit barren like everything, but blessing and goodwill can be heard anywhere, in fact, it must sound right in the hopeless place and situation, trusting in its creative power and realization.
Chorus:
Oh, my holy land, I pray for only one thing – May your heart beat forever. Let all sorrows and hardships be forgotten, Let the sun and moon shine forever. May there be joy in every home and children's laughter ring, And I wish prosperity to the whole world!
In the middle of a huge and wonderful landscape, among the increasingly billowing clouds, the pianist is alone (Renat Gaissin, the composer), symbolizing to me a man left alone who would still hear the melody, sing, but wonder if he could hear someone’s voice asking for help? (And, of course, the whole world has known this music and clip ever since, but has there been any concrete help… ..?) At the top of the world you can still feel close to heaven, close to help.
The blood on the kobyz also symbolizes the people who have suffered a lot, the men fighting for the nation at all ages, the piano sinking into the water and then flaming the many fiery wars, fighting, destruction, with the death of the lonely man who played the piano to his last breath ……. And it's already down on the ground.
Dimash’s voice finally reaches the sky on the shores of Lake Kaindy, full of ruined pine trees, all symbols of passing and hope of survival. After tremendous tension and intensification, his voice finally erupts here to unleash a desperate cry. Of course, musically, this cry is perfectly in place, supporting its significance with its arm pointing to the sky.
Yet the flaming soul of Dimash under the ominous dark skies seems to be a sacrifice against the wrath of heaven, as one who symbolizes unbroken strength and faith in spite of difficulties. Nor does sacrificing yourself deter you if you can help others.
How characteristic it is! To give people hope, without sparing themselves, at any cost!
Chorus 2 ×
(Rivers finally reach the lake, which means security, calm, life-giving water appears between the barren mountains, although a cloud covers its path, it is not known where it leads, but even that is not enough, tragedy, blood , death is again seen under the tune of Kobyz, and so is the burning victim)
He visibly loves his homeland, as he can show a lot of things with his wonderful drone recordings and is proud of him, but here the camera is on the same level with him, on the ground, in the water, that is, down there, there is trouble, that's where the desperate request comes from. The points of view bounce, shorten and accelerate between the top and the bottom, with the excitement of the helplessness, but still the solution, the increased pace. Every frame has a meaning, an essential sight, with an essential message. References, call images that can bring up thousands of memories from everyone. Yes, these words are characteristic of commonly understood works of art, of eternity. Every time we hear and see, in a different state of mind, at a different time, he always says something else, it won’t be boring, there will always be something new in it. Masterpiece.
At the end of the fighting prayer, the dust falls, the ashes from Dimash's dress, his face also injured, he came from a fiery fight, but his knees overcast give thanks and the dark tone in B minor changed here in B major, rise musically, rise in gratitude to the sky, swim out from the picture the barren mountain, though at the top already green plants are greening and the sun is shining, the landscape is full of life, at the last minute.
Rise at all levels expressed and supported.
The view of the landscape started from above, traversed the earth, hell and the end of the hill is up again.
Colors range from black and white to color. Only blood and fire appear in color.
The color of the blood is already more prominent in the battle scenes, and then it will definitely be red even in the gray background, when on the kobyz trickles down and darkens to the end on the pianist's face before death, and as if it had faded, the wound on Dimash's face seemed to heal.
The inscriptions are black and white, only the title and at the very end the blessing is gold.
The music rises from dark, deep minor tones to major, stronger, brighter tones.
His editing doesn’t follow the rules of the golden ratio, after a long boost at the end of the song, with a sudden dynamic drop and slowdown, as with Dimash in general.
Dimash confident at the beginning, borrowed by the water, standing with pocketed hands, kneeling at the end, but on the mountain: more broken but closer to God.
Great Teacher.
He shows the way.
This is only the property of really great artists.
Stay, my homeland! Stay intact my house! (kneeling and giving thanks and only here the tone of the song also rises)
And in the sunny landscape the Kazakh inscription: "Let our people be safe and peace in our country."
Dimash Kudaibergen, with his first directing alongside Azamat Dulatov, set the bar very high, showing his subtle poetry, immense spirit and strength. I can’t write about his infinitely expressive voice and sensitive singing because that’s the miracle itself. He is a gift to the world.
You can read more about the creators of the clip and the history of the song here:
Hírek
