Directed by: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Streaming on MUBI India.
This film wasn't very accessible to me. It had a lot of deadpan humor, which I really enjoy - I'm a huge fan of Bill Murray's deadpan comedy in Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers and On The Rocks. The issue in this film was, it felt too obscure and scattered - which made the film alien to me. I wasn't tracking with the story as much. I was enjoying the scenes individually. The set-ups, the quirks in the actors, the pop culture references and the way the film is shot - I was enjoying all of them. But I wasn't emotionally hooked. But, I didn't mind watching it only for its absurdity. It's a damn weird film.
Because it's extremely weird and unpredictable, but it never becomes any dramatic. No matter how trivial the stuff that's happening there, the pacing will always remain the same. I think that's the sign of a solid director - who is unapologetically held on the tone of the film. I think that's essentially the job of a director. Keeping in check - the tone of the film. Because I personally think, sometimes, even more than the plot and characters - the tone makes the audience decide if they want to continue watching it or not. So the tone of this film felt too obscure to me. It's like what if 'Ballad of Buster Scruggs' became even more obscure?
Nevertheless, I loved the unpredictability of the film. The stand-offs are interesting. And I loved some of the locations in the film - so beautiful they were. It's a Kazakhstani film - and Kazakhstan is not usually in our pop culture too. So it was interesting to experience the milieu there through a film. But the setting of the film made it feel like it doesn't represent the country in any way.
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