MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Russian filmmaker and producer Timur Bekmambetov plans to put into practice the project of a movie, authored by prominent Kazakh figure skater Denis Ten, stabbed to death in Kazakhstan on Thursday.
Ten, the bronze medalist of the 2018 Sochi Olympics, died in a hospital in Almaty on Thursday afternoon after he had been assaulted by two unidentified suspects and sustained a knife stab. According to Almaty’s police department, he spotted two unknown suspects trying to dismount and steal side-mirrors of his car at about midday local time (9:00 GMT). As a result of the following brawl with the suspects, the 25-year-old figure skater was stabbed and taken to a hospital, where he died three hours later despite enormous efforts of the medical staff to save his life.
On July 13, less than a week before his tragic death, Ten unveiled the project of his future film during the ‘Screenlife Project’ competition, organized by Bekmambetov and his Bazelevs production company. The movie about the relations of a hearing-impaired girl and a mute young man, was to be filmed in the Screenlife format, which tells a whole narrative within the frames of a computer screen.
Internet users have launched a campaign on social networking sites, asking Bekmambetov to take charge of the project.
"This is an enormous tragedy, my condolences to his relatives and friends. We will certainly try to put his ideas into practice, to make a film devoted to this talented person. Ten achieved a lot by the age of 25, and had lots of plans which were bound to succeed, because he was a very hardworking person," Bekmambetov said.
Ten began his professional career in 2006, after winning the national championship for adults at the age of 12. Besides winning the Olympic bronze at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia’s Sochi, Denis Ten also grabbed the Figure Skating World Championship’s silver and bronze in 2013 and 2015 respectively.