Before he became “famous” with his rather intelligent and humorous genre approach in 2020, with “Yellow Cat” and “Ulbolsyn”, Adilkhan Yerzhanov had directed a number of other movies, with “A Dark, Dark Man” featuring the same traits, but also being darker than his latest efforts. Let us take things from the beginning though.
on Amazon
The introduction sets the tone of the whole movie in the most eloquent fashion. A boy has been killed in an aul (Kazakh village) and a police detective is examining the body in the most amateur way possible, behind a cornfield that seems like the perfect background for a Stephen King novel. After the “examination” is over, the policeman calls the local simpleton Pekuar, bribes him with candy to masturbate in a cup, and then proceeds on placing the semen on the dead body, framing the young man who barely understands what is going on.
on Amazon
The introduction sets the tone of the whole movie in the most eloquent fashion. A boy has been killed in an aul (Kazakh village) and a police detective is examining the body in the most amateur way possible, behind a cornfield that seems like the perfect background for a Stephen King novel. After the “examination” is over, the policeman calls the local simpleton Pekuar, bribes him with candy to masturbate in a cup, and then proceeds on placing the semen on the dead body, framing the young man who barely understands what is going on.
- 7/6/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
If endless sequels, prequels, reboots, spin-offs, teamups, callbacks and shout-outs have put you off the idea of the “shared cinematic universe,” you haven’t been spending enough time in Karatas, world cinema’s smallest, wildest, weirdest crossover microcosm. The fictional village in rural Kazakhstan, populated exclusively by the clueless, the cowardly, the comic and the corrupt has provided a stark, absurdist backdrop for most of prolific Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s films, including his newest, the dark, funny, freaky “Assault.”
It may not be the most essential Yerzhanov entry — it’s not the darkest, funniest or freakiest — but “Assault” is a droll refresher on his singular sensibilities, and his borderline miraculous ability to maintain a coherent tone while narrative logic and consistency are highly expendable commodities. Good taste, too, can be as casually tossed out as one of the stuttered insults that make up about 80 percent of the dialogue. Here,...
It may not be the most essential Yerzhanov entry — it’s not the darkest, funniest or freakiest — but “Assault” is a droll refresher on his singular sensibilities, and his borderline miraculous ability to maintain a coherent tone while narrative logic and consistency are highly expendable commodities. Good taste, too, can be as casually tossed out as one of the stuttered insults that make up about 80 percent of the dialogue. Here,...
- 1/28/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Dark, dark humor and darker, darker themes prowl and glower through the desiccated cornfields and barren dustbowls of Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s bleakly dazzling police procedural “A Dark-Dark Man.” Premiering in San Sebastian and going on to play at the Busan Film Festival, this seventh feature from Yerzhanov, whose last film “The Gentle Indifference of the World” bowed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, is a staggeringly controlled, slow-burn scorcher of a crime thriller.
The opening salvo is already not for the faint of heart: A police detective is examining the dead body of a small boy in an abandoned outbuilding beside a sinister cornfield. With offhand, practiced weariness, the detective doctors the scene, calling in slow-witted local misfit Pekuar (Teoman Khos), bribing him with chocolate bars to masturbate into a small cup, and carefully placing the semen on the dead body, thus framing the harmless, gormless Pekuar for the crime.
The opening salvo is already not for the faint of heart: A police detective is examining the dead body of a small boy in an abandoned outbuilding beside a sinister cornfield. With offhand, practiced weariness, the detective doctors the scene, calling in slow-witted local misfit Pekuar (Teoman Khos), bribing him with chocolate bars to masturbate into a small cup, and carefully placing the semen on the dead body, thus framing the harmless, gormless Pekuar for the crime.
- 10/24/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Two penniless villagers try their luck in the big city in the poetically titled “The Gentle Indifference of the World.” The latest from Kazakh indie helmer Adilkhan Yerzhanov (“The Owners”) once again indicts bureaucratic corruption and abuse of power in the post-Soviet wild East. Despite the titular tip of the hat to French philosopher and existentialist author Albert Camus’ “The Stranger” and references to Paris and Jean-Paul Belmondo, this whimsical, low-budget film is very much of a piece with the director’s previous work. The world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard lineup should serve as a launch pad for further fest play.
Over the course of six features, Yerzhanov has crafted what one might call a distinctive cinema of poverty that’s serious in its themes and playful in its design. His slyly humorous, stylized minimalism, the miserablism of his characters and their laconic, poker-faced acting style all recall...
Over the course of six features, Yerzhanov has crafted what one might call a distinctive cinema of poverty that’s serious in its themes and playful in its design. His slyly humorous, stylized minimalism, the miserablism of his characters and their laconic, poker-faced acting style all recall...
- 5/18/2018
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
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