There are people whose life is a daily struggle with a serious illness. Only a few of them manage to not only exist, but to reach heights inaccessible to most healthy people. Such heroes are admirable, and their example should inspire everyone who is faced with a problem that seems insoluble to him.
Suimenkul Chokmorov, whose biography is devoted to this article, lived only 53 years. However, during this time he did a lot for the development of Kyrgyz cinema and created more than 400 paintings, many of which are an adornment of the Bishkek Museum of Fine Arts.
early years
Suymenkul Chokmorov was born in 1939 in the village of Chon-Tash, which is not far from the capital of the Kyrgyz SSR - Frunze (now Bishkek). His family, in which, in addition to him, there were 10 more children (7 boys and 3 girls), belonged to the Chuy division of the Zhetigen tribe. The family was friendly, and the older brothers considered it their duty to take care of the kids.
Disease
The future famous actor was born without one kidney, and the second was affected by polycystic.
Suimenkul graduated from grade 4 in his native village. To continue his education, he had to walk every day to a neighboring village, which was ten kilometers from his house. Since the boy was painful, the parents decided to send Suymenkul to his older brother. He was an officer and lived in the large village of Burulday. There, Suymenkul Chokmorov went to the 5th grade. For several years, the boy followed his brother from one garrison town to another.
However, due to congenital malformations of internal organs, Suymenkul has developed a whole bunch of various diseases. He had serious joint problems, as a result of which the boy was forced to spend several months in the hospital.
Subsequently, Suymenkul always regretted that in childhood he was deprived of the usual entertainments of his peers, but he warmly recalled a doctor by the name of Gurevich, who helped him to his feet.
Love of drawing and passion for sports
When Suymenkul felt better, his brother took him home. Trying to distract the boy, he brought him many books. Most of all, Suymenkul was fascinated by albums with reproductions of famous painters. Deprived of children's joys, he began to redraw them, and after a while others noticed his unconditional successes. To calmly indulge in his beloved business, in the summer, the boy was called to graze the sheep. He led the flock to the mountains, where he could spend hours sitting with a pencil and a piece of paper, capturing magnificent landscapes on it.
When Suymenkul felt better, doctors advised him to go in for sports. The teenager enrolled in two sports sections. He chose volleyball and high jump. Looking ahead, we note that while studying in Leningrad, Soimenkul Chokmorov, whose biography is an example for many children from large families, received the title of master of sports in volleyball and was a member of the student team of the city on the Neva.
Music or drawing …
After completing 7 classes, the teenager faced a difficult choice of profession. He painted and played folk instruments equally well. His brother Bakiya advised to enter a music school, and Namyrbek, with whom a teenager lived almost the entire time while he went to school, recommended passing exams at an art school. Suimenkul himself first decided to choose both. However, after a few months it became clear that combining studies in both educational institutions would not work. Realizing the need for a final choice, Suymenkul chose painting.
Education
From 1953 to 1958, Suymenkul Chokmorov, films with whose participation were known far beyond the borders of Kyrgyzstan, studied at the Frunze Art College. After receiving his diploma, he entered the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin and graduated in 1964.
During his studies in the city on the Neva, Chokmorov already had a chance to act in films. Once, he and his classmates drew a horse from life in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts. During the break, the young man could not resist the temptation and jumped into the saddle. The dashing rider was noticed by the second director of the picture "Jura" passing by. He invited the young man to audition, they were successful, but subsequently the filmmakers were afraid to entrust the main role to the layman.
Homecoming
After receiving a diploma from the Academy of Arts, Suymenkul Chokmorov returned to Frunze. At home, he took up teaching painting and composition at a local art school.
During the work on the portrait of the “Kyrgyz Homer” by Sayak-bai Karalaev, the artist met Bolot Shamshiev, who shot a documentary about the famous storyteller. At that time, the director was going to make his feature film debut. Shamshiev told Suymenkul Chokmorov about the desire to make a feature film. This meeting became crucial for the artist, since it was to him that the director entrusted only poor Bakhtygul.
Movie career
The acting debut of Suymenkul Chokmorov was more than successful. He was invited to other films by other directors. In 1972, he played in the film by Andrei Konchalovsky "The Seventh Bullet." Subsequently, this film became one of the classic examples of the popular Soviet western genre.
Being a modest person, Chokmorov never boasted that he had played Dersu Uzala in the film by the world famous Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. Not many people know that the Soviet members of the film crew at first even wanted to offer him the main role, but then changed their minds, since Suymenkul was tall, and this “flaw” could hardly be fixed with makeup. Nevertheless, Kurosawa decided to remove the actor he liked and invited him to one of the episodes.
Other movie roles
In total, Chokmorov Suymenkul, whose awards and prizes are difficult to list in one article, played in almost two dozen films. Among them:
- "Jamilya."
- "Extraordinary Commissioner."
- "Worship the fire."
- "Scarlet Poppies of Issyk-Kul."
- "Ulan".
- "The early cranes."
- "I am the Tien Shan."
- "Fierce."
- "Red Apple".
- The Eye of the Eye.
- "First".
- Kanybek.
- "Men without women."
- The Wolf Pit.
- Sunday walks.
- "The waves die on the shore."
As a popular Soviet film actor, Chokmorov Suymenkul, whose biography, awards and titles have always been the pride of the inhabitants of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, has represented Soviet cinema in many foreign countries.
Achievements in the field of painting
Suymenkul Chokmorov (omur button accordions (Kyrgyz. Biography) of this person is known to every resident of the republic) never forgot about his main profession. His brushes belong to more than 400 paintings, the best of which are exhibited at the Kyrgyz State Museum of Fine Arts. For his achievements in this field, he was awarded the highest professional ranks. In 1974, Chokmorov became a member of the Union of Artists of the Kyrgyz SSR, and even earlier - the Union of Artists of the USSR.
