Abstract

This study examines the use of Russian and Kazakh languages in contemporary Kazakhstani films, focusing on code-switching patterns and their sociolinguistic meanings within the national cinema. Our research question concerns how the Kazakh identity is constructed through bilingual films. In doing so, it investigates bilingualism through Kazakh-Russian language alternation in films produced in Kazakhstan between 2021 and 2025. The corpus includes commercial, independent, and state-funded productions screened at cinema theatres that depict everyday communication in multilingual urban and rural contexts. Our study compares Kazakhstani films produced before and after the Russo-Ukrainian war to gauge recent developments in post-independent Kazakhstan. The use of both languages in these films reflects broader sociolinguistic dynamics, such as language policy and the symbolic status of Kazakh and Russian in public life. Contrary to interpretations that consider bilingual dialogue merely as a reflection of everyday speech, this analysis demonstrates that filmmakers strategically employ code-switching to construct character identity and negotiate cultural belonging within a post-Soviet framework. The study is grounded in textual and discourse analyses of selected 11 Kazakhstani films, as well as in content analysis and in-depth interviews with Kazakhstani filmmakers. Our findings confirm our hypothesis that Russian is used in a high-diglossic variety – a high-status, formal situation – in contemporary Kazakhstani films, while Kazakh is used in low-diglossic settings – low-status, informal contexts. Such comparisons in the nation’s films show how Kazakh and Russian are used and what social meanings they carry, as language choices are deliberate tools for storytelling and identity.

Keywords: film studies, code switching, language alternation, bilingualism, Kazakh cinema