Mountain Onion - Gornyi luk Directed by Eldar Shibanov
Mountain Onion - Gornyi luk
Directed by Eldar Shibanov
Starrings: Kuantay Abdimadi, Esil Amantay, Amina Gaziyeva, Zhazira Kaskey, Sanjar Madi, Laura Tursunkanova
Country Kazakistan
Year 2022
Review Author: Shane Virunphan
Click Here for Italian Version
“Dad? Crying? Impossible.”
Kazakhstan is the tenth-largest nation in the world. 2,7 million square kilometres but is sparsely populated, just over 19 million people, sixty-fourth in the world rankings.
Steppes extend inland. Less than 10% of the population lives in the capital Almaty. In the countryside and villages, infinite spaces are predominant, often green and fascinating. Essential characteristics, capable of outlining Kazakh existence.
The inhabitants are young; 26.13% are between zero and fourteen years old. (1)
Children are frequently the protagonists of Kazakhstan films. For example, Ozen – River by Kazakh director Emir Baigazin. It was presented at the 75. Venice Film Festival. The kids were suffering, lonely, sad. They lived isolated on a sunny steppe.
Again two children, but this time exuberant, are the protagonists of the joyful film Mountain Onion - Gornyi Luk by Kazakh filmmaker Eldar Shibanov presented at 79th Venice Film Festival.
In the empty, lush immensity of the Kazakh landscape, children are playing. It is a slap challenging. They hit each other hard. Who tolerates pain stoically wins money.
Eleven-year-old Jabai (Esil Amantai) is the champion. He has solid motivation: he needs cash to buy a cake for his father's birthday.
Jabai's family consists of his idolized father Aybek, mother Lasta and sister Sania, a year younger than him. Unfortunately, they are in crisis. At Aybeck's wish, they left the city for a rural area. He wants to build an ecological house in nature. There are many obstacles, so much effort to bear. The construction is blocked, so they have to stay in a tent. Money is scarce. Parents leave their children every morning on the edge of a busy road but in the middle of nowhere, selling onions.
While the husband is proud and sensitive, the wife is haughty, bored and without merit. She cheats on Aybeck with Uncle Vitya, a vigorous young driver. Their meetings take place in his truck cabin. Children notice it and, rightly curious, desire to see it. So, Jabai discovers his mother's infidelity.
Jabai accuses his father for his lack of energy and sexual power. With his sister, he has an idea: to revitalize his father with Gold Viagra, a Chinese production of the famous medicine. However, to get it, they have to travel to China, so they hide in Uncle's truck.
It follows a series of comic rather than tragic misadventures when they arrive at their destination.
The director, despite his light tone, tackles complex issues: Kazakhstan's cultural charm and the attitudes of its children. In addition, there are heterogeneous universal topics: family, marriage, divorce and those connected with physical force and viagra.
The director narrates about Kazakh tradition and the behaviour of children, such as Jabai's funny haircut:
“They prepared with make-up artist, hairstylist and concept designer who created the haircut for the kid so he would appear as a native of that area.” (2)
There is attention to detail, peculiarities throughout the film.
Another meticulousness is the suggestive setting:
“It’s an area not far from my home city Almaty in the south of Kazakhstan. It’s a hilly and mountain area but also on one side, there’s steps. We spent a lot of time to find that place for where the story happens and these bright green hills were right.” (2)
Along with the other primary colours, bright green paints the whole frame.
Children want to prevent their parents from divorcing. It is a common feeling around the world. Children suffer from separation; they both love and choosing one of them is a deep torment
“It was important for me to tell the story from the point of view of the children of Saniya and Jabai, since, like the heroes of the film, I went through the process of divorce of my parents. This is a very difficult time and it seems that there is no happiness around and everything is over. But it’s not. Life goes on and your parents will not stop loving you even if they live separately. … in the separation process was also a time of happiness. Peculiar, but happy. We were still a family.” (3)
Jabai and Sania love their family. They are not interested in material possessions. They do not care if they do not have a home yet or if they are sleeping outdoors or even if they are selling onions. They just want to be happy with their parents. They face a big risk when secretly enter China near the border. Here they can buy Gold Viagra.
Family is the basis of society. In some countries, they want to destroy it because it is an element of resistance. The main enemy of anti-demographic lobbies is the family. Jabai, Aybek, Lasta and Sania are the Kazakh family. It is not perfect. Family has many flaws, the director shows them, but in any case, he too opposes its extinction.
Jabai is a cute little boy. It has the face of a naughty cherub, intensely pinkish, with particular physical features such as majestic ears and a slightly flattened nose, enhanced by an extravagant fashion hairstyle.
He is courageous, active, energetic, enthusiastic, faithful, pure. He is a happy child. The fear of separation upset him, but he did not give up. He wishes to be serene just with his parents. He longs for being big, is concerned about his penis, it does not grow.
Jabai is the winner, along with the nice and intelligent Sania. She is pretty, with braids. She seems like Pippi Longstocking too, for her liveliness.
Lasta is acid, apathetic, cynical, selfish. She is extremely easy. She betrays her husband out of boredom and spite. She is mean. She continues to give orders to Aybek, treating him with contempt, as in the scene of blowing out the cake candles.
Aybek is euphoric, sweet, naif, honest, confident. He does not react to his wife's misdeeds. He refuses to sign the divorce papers. He dreams of cleaning up the planet but he neglects his family. He is a dreamer, he has his world, he wants to fight pollution, so he collects plastic and carries it on a fun motorcycle.
The absurd motorcycle is important. It is tiny but together they manage to fit in, even though they have to share it with rubbish bags. His role is allegorical. The director says:
“Yeah, it was a horrible thing because the production designer and prop artist had to find the exact motorcycle that works well because half the film happens on the bike. On the second day of shooting it started to break down. But we had already captured half of the opening scenes so it wasn’t easy to figure it out. We had one person who just was focused on that motorcycle and push it so that it would start to work on set before the shooting.” (2)
The characters are likeable, but the audience's idol is understandably Jalai. In the presentation, all the attention is on him. The director never abandons him. He is amusing. He retains the specifying of boyhood even as he tackles his fears in a Chinese city. His goal is to save the family, subordinately, obtain viagra. His journey has a sentimental function, it is a catharsis for the love of his family. In the end, he reaches a state of awareness and gets viagra. Will his parents divorce anyway?
The rhythm never stops, the tension is thrilling. The children are completely in harmony, and the expectation is captivating. The plot is exhilarating.
Like the two guys, two cretins. They are in tandem, on a street away from the city. They are immoderately dressed. Shirtless, with lots of tattoos and tight psychedelic shorts. They promote a campaign which slogan is "Stop domestic violence". They ask Jalai if violence is in his family. Jalai obviously replies that his mother regularly beats his father.
This sequence, along with those of the fields filled with ugly solar panels, threatens both the cultural and ecological representation of those who want to colonize Kazakhstan.
The poetic vision exists in the unfinished house. Despite it, there are some hints of beauty, such as ceramics and an odd pink bathtub.
Then, there is the comical sequence in the Chinese pharmacy. Jalai demands for viagra. A misunderstanding arises with the apothecary, mainly due to the children's overflowing imagination. There is hilarious tension. The camera films Jamai up, the subjective view of the shopkeeper, the children are crushed below. The elderly merchant screams "for the viagra". Cut. The camera is at the bottom. Upward angle. In the frame, the toothless elderly Chinese woman laughs exaggeratedly; she barely fills a quarter of the frame. This part is fun, accompanied by Jalai's scare.
When the children are in China, far from home security, the images lose power and become considerably more attenuated, dense smog descends.
The film is a comedy by the author's will, the spectators enjoy it a lot:
“It’s a comedy because I wanted to make a feel-good movie to show the other side of Kazakhstan. There’s a lot of strong, heavy drama films from the country but I wanted to show the bright side. That’s why you also see the bright colours which the DOP created. I like that you mentioned it has a strange, absurd humour. That’s amazing.” (2)
Strange figures, gangsters, and imposters populate the China scenes. The situation cuts across the absurd, maintaining its guidelines with bright light, overabundant with colour, exalting the environment as at the beginning. The lush nature and the slapping contest are a metaphor for Kazakh character.
Besides, the flashy colours are ton sur ton. The director's skill is to place the camera exactly, always moving until it is positioned in unnatural dislocations. The camera appears to have a life of its own. The soundtrack is accurate since it is a cheerful film.
The conclusion is optimistic, as the author aims:
“Therefore, I wanted to make a feel good movie in which it seems to children that their parents will be together no matter what happens. And perhaps this hope will be transmitted to the audience.” (3)
Aybek and Lasta find the children in China. Aybek has regained strength, he can defend his wife.
And Lane helps her husband pick up plastic from the fields. Altogether, on the motorbike, set off.
The film tends towards surrealism, fantasy. The atmosphere is lively, the plot is never weak. The personalities are sophisticated. The oneiric aspect is dominant, as well as the social one. The similarities are with a macrocosm lived on a motorcycle. A parody of the speculative innovation of reactionary aims from the West. A simple but lyrical film.