Rustem Begenov

Theatre and film director, composer, thinker and multidisciplinary artist Rustem Begenov was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan in 1983. Here he graduated from the Kazakh National University with a degree in fluid, gas and plasma mechanics and worked in a wide range of specialties: employee of the Research Institute of Mechanics and Mathematics, risk manager at the world's largest insurance broker, owner of his own music bar, art director of several local clubs, guitarist and band leader, Bible editor and translator and even worship leader in a Presbyterian church. In 2012, together with Alexandra Morozova, he went to Moscow, where he entered the Boris Yukhananov Studio of Individual Directing.

During his studies, Rustem worked as assistant director and line producer for such directors as Heiner Goebbels, Romeo Castellucci and Theodoros Terzopoulos. Returning to Almaty in 2015, together with Alexandra, he founded ORTA, a creative company that has become a pioneer in the field of interdisciplinary theater in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, and in which Rustem is a director, producer, and composer.

Since 2016, Rustem has been working on the legacy of the Almaty artist, writer, thinker and Genius of the Absolute Interplanetary Category Sergey Kalmykov (1891-1967). From his texts and life, Rustem crystallizes what he calls The New Genius Theory—a system of approach to life and creativity that considers genius as a practice of influencing the "higher dimension" called the Universal Composition, accessible to everyone, in contrast to the generally accepted understanding of genius as an innate exceptional gift of certain individuals.

In 2023, Rustem initiated and currently leads the Planetary Program of The Great Atomic Bombreflector, which applies The New Genius Theory to the terrible legacy of nuclear and thermonuclear tests in Kazakhstan.

Rustem's directorial, production, composition and theoretical works have been presented at such venues and in such publications as: NET-2016, New Drama-2018, NONAME-2021 festivals, New Genius Kazakhstan 2021 exhibition (Moscow), Kuryokhin Prize nominees exhibition (St. Petersburg, Russia) 2016, 2018; the first national pavilion of Kazakhstan at the 59th Venice Biennale (Venice); La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (New York); Cosmic Bulletin 2022; Vlast.kz; "Message 2 man" International film festival.