Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.
THE RIVER
Өзен | Ozen
Synopsis
On a vast plain in Kazakhstan, surrounded by mountaintops, Aslan and his four younger brothers are put to work continuously by their strict father. They live secluded lives, with no time for pleasure, until the boys’ accidental discovery of the modern world threatens their way of life.
Synopsis
On a vast plain in Kazakhstan, surrounded by mountaintops, Aslan and his four younger brothers are put to work continuously by their strict father. They live secluded lives, with no time for pleasure, until the boys’ accidental discovery of the modern world threatens their way of life.
Our take
Reminiscent of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth, Emir Baigazin’s unsettling drama dreams up an eerily sequestered existence in a remote Kazakh village where paternal authoritarianism reigns. Under the intrusion of technology, the lush, ascetic cinematography gives way to shocking familial transgressions.