In August 1941, two largest Soviet film studios Mosfilm and Lenfilm were evacuated to Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. There, together with the newly founded Alma-Ata Film Studio, they were merged into TsOKS (Central United Film Studio), which became the main center of film production in the country until 1944. Now Kazakh film industry veterans who worked at the studio during these years recall the dawn of national cinema and years of work with Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Romm and others.