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
Kazakh native Emir Baighazin enrolled in the country’s T. Akhtanov Aktobe Drama Theater acting school before switching to filmmaking at the Kazakh National Academy of the Arts. He’s also an alumnus of the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Film Academy and the Berlin Film Festival’s Young Talent Campus. Harmony Lessons is his first feature.
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/90581988?autoplay=1Film Details
Language Kazakh, Russian
Original Language Title Uroki garmonii
Year 2013
Runtime 114
Country Kazakhstan/Germany/France
Director Emir Baigazin
Producer Anna Katchko
Writer Emir Baigazin
Editor Emir Baigazin
Cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev
Cast Timur Aidarbekov, , Aslan Anarbayev, , Mukhtar Andassov, , Anelya Adilbekova
Print Source Films Distribution SAS/ sanam@filmsdistribution.com