Steppenwolf

I guess this is Kazakhstani Mad Max?

[Fantasia '24] Adopting an approach that openly refers to **The Searchers** (John Ford, 1956), it takes as its starting point the search for a child crossing the desert, although in this case through a kind of Asian western subgenre. But the film is not only built from cinematic references or the explicit expression of violence, showing it in such an absurd way that it is sometimes more realistic, avoiding aestheticizing it, but it also introduces moral questions that the characters face. Between the Asian western and the revenge genre, it is a powerful thriller that reflects on morality and despair.

Basically the same frame as Yerzhanov's usual: a completely stupid character, a morally (dark) gray and determined one, corrupt cops, local gangsters, same landscapes, lots of killing, mostly silence in-between.

Not clear who the first attackers are. They seem not to be with the area's main gangster, and so, who else would attack police HQ ?

The path for revenge is brutal, and doesn't leave anybody out, nor any means. Most of the kills are way more personal than usual. And maybe because of that, the character seems more built and real than usual also.

So it's a good version of his gangster/cop movies, but nothing novel.