The Killer

The former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan isn't richly represented in world film archives, so at the very least this drama affords a glimpse of unfamiliar territory. But this austere, miserabilist film won't do much for the local tourist industry. Clearly meant as a state of the nation address, it finds an impoverished society undergoing moral breakdown. Traffic breakdown, too. Chauffeur Marat, distracted by his newborn child, drives into the Mercedes in front of him and tumbles into a cycle of debt. This is an in-action movie: various beatings, thefts and deaths all take place off camera. Instead we get lots of static shots of doors - mostly closed. Patient viewers will find it builds up a grim moral momentum.