to 1960. 1960s The 1960s was a significant decade for Turkmen filmmaking. In 1961, the Central Committee of the Turkmen Communist Party issued a decree titled “On Major Insufficiencies in the Work of Turkmenfilm” which led to more people joining the cinema industry. Where previously, most of the films produced in the Turkmen studio had involvement from Russian and Ukrainian directors, now, a new generation of Turkmen filmmakers — the first Turkmen graduates of the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (Yazgeldy Seidov, Kurban Yazhanov, Murad Kurbanklychev, Khodzhakuli Narliev, Mukhamed Soiunkhanov et al) — emerged, and were subsequently responsible for most of the Turkenfilm productions. Also, Khrushchev Thaw changed the cultural scapes in that artistic freedom increased vastly and Union of Cinematographers of Turkmenistan was set up in 1965. Thus, Bulat Mansurov's student-diploma work Contest (1963) became the first Turkmen film to gain international attention, and simultaneously birthed poetic cinema. Deriving from Nurmurat Sarykhanov's novel Shukur-Bakhshi about a musician who travels to enemy territory to champion peace, Mansurov tackled the perpetual duel between good and evil and the need of state to wield power over subjects. Aman Khandurdyev and Khodjan Ovezgelenov who played the lead roles were amateurs but pulled off highly convincing and impressive performances; Nury Halmammedov's tragic score has since become a classic and Khodzhakuli Narliev (though, of Soviet descent) made his name as a cameraman. Mansurov went on to produce Quenching the Thirst (1966) based on a novel by Yuri Trifonov covering the friendship between workers who built the Karakum Canal and The Slave Girl (1968) based on a short story by Andrei Platonov covering the emancipation of a girl from slavery; both had Narliev as cameraman. The films generated public interest but were creatively poorer, per Slapke. Peter Rollberg, Professor of Slavic Languages and Film Studies at George Washington University however deems the former to have had introduced a "daring visual style" and notes that critics hold the latter to be his best work. Mansurov's last film (in Turkmenistan) was a WWII parable There Is No Death, Pals (1970) before he emigrated to Kazakshtan and then, Moscow where he continued to direct and produce films. In 1965, Karliev directed The Decisive Step based on Berdi Kerbabayev's work about a young Turkmen labourer searching for love and justice during the tectonic shifts in historical consciousness happening across the aftermath of October Revolution and Civil War. The film had an