REVIEWS
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Kaz. 2012. 90mins Director/screenplay Darezhan Omirbayev Production company Kazakhfilm International sales Kazakhfilm, www.
kazakhfilmstudios.kz Producer Kzf Kim Cinematography Boris Troshev Music Baurzhan Kuanyshev Main cast Maiya Serkibayeva, Yedyge Bolysbayev, Bakhytzhan Turdaliyeva
economy to a rapid, undigested capitalist model. The same types of hustling oligarchs willing to step on all others in their pursuit of money that has been endemic in Russia operates in Kaza- khstan as well. A rupture plagues the society, and here the unremarkable student around whom the story pivots serves as the conduit for the multiple contradictions. He commits the famous murders charted in the
Student Reviewed by Howard Feinstein
With his new film Student, Kazakh director Darezhan Omirbayev puts to rest any notion among the world’s intellectuals and literary folk that adaptations of Dostoyevsky’s great Crime And Punishment have been exhausted. Not only is his aesthetic singular — lean, pared down to nicely textured basics, excision of extraneous images and sounds — but the overall social, politi- cal and geographical context is so unique that it
affords him the opportunity to spin the entire nar- rative in an uncharted direction. The use of gor- geous, spare wrapping for complex ideas is an inspired choice that keeps the entire project both accessible and stimulating. Omirbayev has been making features for more
than 20 years, but this ex-mathematician and film theorist has not had an easy time of getting the exposure he deserves. The Kazakh film industry can hardly maintain itself domestically, much less promote products on the international stage. Good festivals have long taken notice of his talent, but finding distribution is the challenge. This version takes place during the current era of transition from traditional values and a socialist
novel, but he is not sure why. Because he was a broke philosophy student enraged by the state of things? Or because he and another student are attempting to apply the self-deluding values espoused in the novel. The book is relatively new in Kazakhstan, so debate on the subject is fresh, if rather misguided. The student takes a bit too seriously the dilemma faced by Raskalnikov in Dostoyevsky’s novel. He actually thinks that his actions can right wrongs, and that killing in the pursuit of some kind of justice is an appropriate moral choice. As in the novel, he struggles with his decision after the nearly random killings. Along the way, he meets a poet who is no longer of any use to the new society and his family, most of whom are handicapped. For some reason, the student places his trust in
the man’s daughter. She becomes the priest of his confession, until he fully recognises the gravity of his crime and turns himself in to the baffled police. The moment is Bressonian — almost a celebration of his acknowledgement of the heinousness of his transgression. As in earlier films like Kairat, Killer and Cardio-
gram, Omirbayev has succeeded in taking an alien- ated young man and developing his character with often-mundane details of daily life. Yet the sum total of his experiences always lead to a higher truth that is not easily attainable by other means.
Aliyah Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan
As the title, and superficially the script, might sug- gest, Aliyah is about a young Jewish man’s ‘ascent’ to Israel. The fact he is dealing drugs across Paris to fund the journey and listening to Hebrew-lan- guage tapes while weighing up wraps of cocaine may give Aliyah a frisson of the forbidden, but Elie Wajeman’s debut is mostly about one man’s fight to escape the shadow of his brother and carve out a new version of himself. That this might occur in Israel is almost a secondary consideration. Sincere and engaging, Aliyah fields a fresh and
attractive cast, with the director Cédric Kahn tak- ing a lead role. The central relationship between Alex (Marmai) and his overpowering brother Isaac (Kahn) is beautifully conceived and executed, a Cain and Abel push-and-pull that is satisfyingly subtle and oblique. But there is a lack of narrative tension that pulls Aliyah up short. The question of whether Alex will ever make it to Israel never feels urgent enough, though Aliyah does make it clear that if and when he gets there, it will be a Promised Land of all varieties of Jews, for better or worse — some running to something, others running away. Wajeman has made a debut that calls to mind
the world of Mia Hansen-Love, adopting a natural approach that takes on specific and yet highly uni- versal themes. Some of the film is opaque: it hints
n 24 Screen International at Cannes May 20, 2012
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT
Fr. 2012. 90mins DirectorElie Wajeman Production companies 24 Mai Production, Les Films Pelléas International sales Rezo FilmsInternational,
www.rezofilms.com Producer LolaGans ScreenplayElie Wajeman, Gaelle Macé Cinematography David Chizallet Editor Francois Quiquere Main cast Pio Marmai, Cédric Kahn,Adele Haenel, GuillaumeGouix, Sarah Le Picard, DavidGeselson
at past events and makes reference to the brothers’ dead mother and unfeeling father, but it never offers an explanation. Yet other sections are over- emphasised and verge on the ponderous. Ultimately, Alex has a tendency to take a casual
attitude to his own fate that the film finds hard to overcome. Part of a close-knit extended Jewish family, Alex and his cousins are relaxed about their faith. One has just returned from military service in Israel and is about to open a restaurant in Tel Aviv and spontaneously, hash dealer Alex says he wants to be part of it. The money he makes selling drugs
goes on keeping Isaac out of scrapes, but now he ups the ante to scooting cocaine across the French capital to fund his investment in the restaurant, and journey to an Israel he has only once visited as a child and cannot even remember. “Maybe the country’s as screwed up as I am,” he says — one of Aliyah’s more attention-seeking lines. With solid production values and persuasive
flourishes from cinematographer David Chizallet, Aliyah opens and closes to Schoenberg but remains mostly silent in between, apart from Sixto Rodrigu- ez’s Sugar Man, an odd but effective selection.
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