The Kazakh village Karatas is terrorized by a criminal boss called Poshaev (Yerzhanov's regular Daniyar Alshinov), a muscular no-neck tug who is allergic to the slightest rebellion against his way of doing business. As a self-proclaimed ruler of the area, surrounded by a group of armed, merciless killers tasked with punishing anyone who dares to question his unwritten laws, he is bigger than life and as unpredictable as the weather conditions in the Kazakh steppe.
Goliath is screening at Venice International Film Festival
Set in a dramatic landscape with naked mountains and open grassland, “Goliath” is a modern western with nasty cowboys and fearful locals, whose options to survive are reduced to fleeing, or doing what they are told – a set of rules never logical enough to end well. Heads roll or get blown off, but make no mistake thinking you will get what's going on better than characters in the fim, because you won't. To hell with logic, because this is a film you'll devour like a kebap after a night of heavy boozing, disregarding spices and allergenics. Aydar Sharipov will make sure you will swallow it all with his terracota dust sprinkled photography, with the only splash of colours coming from the garments and blood splatter.
The way in which Poshaev and his gang are portrayed is slightly different from the usual representation of criminals in Yerzhanov's previous movies. The humor is downsized, the characters almost as sinister as their deeds. Alshinov shines in his role of a ruthless mobster who never parts from his Kalashnikov, his psychopath nature running wild as a wounded boar.
Yerzhanov stays faithful to Karatas, a Kazakh answer to Ystad by the number of crimes per capita, and the time will come when the area will also welcome tourists eager to follow the trail of fictive baddies, turning stones to find a twig snapped in two as a proof that Alshinov's foot was resting on it while waiting for someone to send him six feet under.
The film is a direct reaction to the global resurgence of autocracies and dictatorships seen from the perspective of a small community. Politicians, the representatives of law and order, and even clerics, are painted as corrupt cowards who stand aside and let things happen out of personal interests. When those get endangered, weapons are put in the hands of those who never held them before; a tactic applied since the beginning of humankind.
More mature than Yerzhanov's previous body of work in the story build-up, but deprived of the charm of humor-meets-crime, “Goliath” marks a shift in his film-making, more focused on character development than ever before. This doesn't only refer to Daniyar Alshinov playing the mean guy, but also to Berik Aitzhanov's role as Arzu, a man with a speech impediment widowed by the culprit, who has to play smart to get his revenge. In a side, but memorable role, one of the strongest performances is given by the Russian actress Karina Tygylbaeva (Kirill Serebrennikov's “Peter's Flu”).
After Yerzhanov's 15th feature saw its world premiere in Venice's Orizzonti Extra program, it has big chances of making a big international film festival round.
