Harmony Lessons

Description

In a rural high school in Kazahkstan, upper-class students extort money from younger pupils and an alpha gangster named Bolat (Aslan Anarbayev) is hell-bent on ruling the racketeering roost. After a prank pulled on the resident science nerd Aslan (Timur Aidarbekov) makes him persona non grata on campus, the social leper does what any misfit kid would do: designs miniature electric chairs for torturing cockroaches, constructs a crude zip gun from scratch and dreams of revenge. The more Bolat asserts his strength in the schoolyard, the more Aslan quietly schemes on the periphery. It’s not a question of if a breaking point is on the horizon, but of how much blood will be spilled when it happens. Part underage prison-gang thriller, part Lord of the Flies riff and part ticking-time-bomb character study, the debut feature from young Kazakh filmmaker Emir Baigazin feels like the work of an assured master; the rigorous formalism and beautifully rendered brutality would make Michael Haneke envious. But at its heart, the writer-director has crafted a sui generis social critique on national Darwinism: This is a Kazakhstan of pecking orders and predators, where the closest you’ll ever get to heaven is a neon videogame arcade. –David Fear

Trailer

//player.vimeo.com/video/90581988?autoplay=1

Film Details