ASTANA – With numerous festival awards gathering international attention, noir thriller “Dala Kaskyry” (Steppenwolf) was unveiled to the Kazakh audience in Astana on Aug. 12, ahead of its nationwide release in theaters on Aug. 15.
Photo credit: film press service.
Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov, whose “Yellow Cat” drama film entered Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film longlist in 2021, “Steppenwolf” is an atypical auteur film for Kazakh audience. Film producer Aliya Mendygozhina is optimistic about the film’s reception among the local audience.
“We believe that our audience will like the movie. After all, our cinema is oversaturated with comedies. I hope that our viewers are ready for an auteur, deep movie,” she said during the presentation.
Yerzhanov’s latest piece follows the story of Tamara, a woman searching for her missing son amid mass unrest. She hires a detective to assist her, but this decision sets off a chain of unexpected consequences.
Throughout the film one observes the darkest acts can occur in broad daylight.
“This is a movie-reflection about violence, about how acceptable violence is, and whether the end justifies the means,” said Mendygozhina.
Thriller-drama with Berik Aitzhanov and Anna Starchenko in lead roles engages the viewer from the very first moments. Their remarkable performance earned them the best actor title at the Fantasia Film Festival in Canada. Cameraman Yerkinbek Ptyraliyev, who filmed “Dala Kaskyry,” became the first Kazakh to join the Oscar Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
This film garnered numerous accolades at 20 film festivals worldwide. Among its honors is the French Critics Association Prize at the Reims Polar 2024 Film Festival. It also received high praise at last year’s Rotterdam Film Festival and won the top prize in Belgium.
“The key distinction of ‘Dala Kaskyry’ from my previous works is, perhaps, its international promotion. The film has enjoyed remarkable success globally, with rights already sold in North America, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. We are currently in negotiations for distribution in Portugal. In general, several other countries have also acquired the rights,” said producer Mendygozhina.
She said the film is a good introduction for foreign audience to Kazakh films.
“Now, thanks to Adilkhan Yerzhanov and ‘Dala Kaskyry’ film, the North American part of the cinematography has learned about Kazakhstan and Kazakh cinema, which is very important for us. Many reviews and awards at film festivals speak about it,” said Mendygozhina.
The film was produced with the support of the Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Information, the State Center for Support of National Film and Golden Man Media.
