Ozen - River Directed by Emir Baigazin
Ozen - River
Directed by Emir Baigazin
Starrings: Zhalgas Klanov, Zhasulan Userbayev, Ruslan Userbayev, Bagdaulet Sagindikov, Sultanali Zhaksybek, Kuandyk Kystykbayev, Aida Iliyaskyzy, Eric Tazabekov
Year: 2018
Country: Kazakhstan, Poland, Norway
Review Author: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
"I hate him."
Kazakhstan is the tenth largest country in the world - 2.7 million square kilometres - but it is scarcely inhabited - less than 19 million people - sixty-third in the world rankings.
A vast steppe extends in the country. In the capital Almaty lives about 10% of the population. In the countryside and in the small villages huge spaces are predominant. The existence of the Kazakhs is surrounded by empty, arid, inhospitable land.
The setting of Kazakhstan is important to understand the beautiful film Ozen - River by Kazakh director Emir Baigazin. It was presented at the 75th Venice International Film Festival, winning the prize for best direction for the Orizzonti competition.
“...I stumbled upon a Bible quotation, Solomon’s words, which say: “Thoughts in the heart of a man are like deep waters.” And that was another source of inspiration for the film. That’s when I remembered about shooting the movie on the river. ” (1)
According to the author the main element is the river.
The river is the divine location of the story, because it is an inspiration of the Biblical Solomon. Near an immense river, nobody can see the other banks, a male family live, except for a few brief appearances by a woman.
Their house is a modest isolated farm in the steppe, far from any city, wealth and comfort. It is composed of the father and five children, all males. The elder - Aslan - is thirteen years old. The young work heavy or in the field, or make buildings. The father is the severe leader, when by sidecard he goes off to sell bread, Aslan replaces him. It is a hard task to guide the siblings. Aslan has the responsibility and if they do not work scrupulously he becomes the whipping boy, the father punishes him.
Aslan is the central character; it is the pivot, he is, around and inside the Solomonic river. a model for the brothers.
In the opening scene, Aslan silently seats between two doors: he thinks.
The framing locates inside doors, walls, windows are one of the director's languages and the author loves ideal geometric dimensions.
Everything is geometric, organized, regular, precise, schematic and even logical: the house seen from the outside is ideal, everything is exact, the windows are symmetrical and the characters pose, they stand structurally to the building and to the steppe, up to get mixed up with the environment.
They are dressed in tunics, similar to those of the Franciscans. The poor clothes have the same colour as the scenography setting. It is obvious, they are humble, they have no food problems, but they work hard. They sleep together in large beds while the flies buzz around them. The five are the same, both they dress the same way and because they have the same mindset. Despite the harsh efforts, Aslan keeps the ties quite free so the kids have fun; they are cheerful, always busy in games. Leisure activities also take on a geometric appearance like a dance.
They live well despite the corporal punishment of a cruel father, but an unknown, foreign, unexplored external subject upsets the difficult compromise.
A boy - another male - arrives. He is the cousin named Kanat. He has the same age but has a different attitude.
He wears a modern suit, long yellow socks, a black hat, sunglasses and moves with an electric skateboard.
Above all, he has a nuclear weapon for the adolescents relegated to the edge of the world: a tablet. The tablet breaks the subtle balance of the family. His shocking brightness and his eclecticism will engage everyone, including the father, in a struggle for his conquest. All wants it.
Does Kanat represent modern, contemporary civilization while it clashes over rural life by destroying it?
The thought of Emir Baigazin:
“I think, in this film, what was most important for me was the spiritual component.
…
Actually, what I show here is just a family and a guest who visits that family. So I wanted to leave the viewer with more freedom for his or her own interpretations. The guest can be interpreted as anything – as God, as the Devil or as civilisation – because we realise he doesn’t only destroy the family; he also tests them. So I’m curious to hear different interpretations of this.” (1)
The author does not want to impose his theory but only stimulate free will about the meaning of Kanat. All in all, he is a kid as the others. Nevertheless, in his DNA he has a destructive threat to the life and culture of a people. The family is both excited by the changes and committed to defending their own tradition. Between the two mentalities, there is the river, the place of disappearance.
"The river has always attracted people."
Every activity takes place in the river including those with spiritual implications.
The film is creative, active, stimulating.
Emir Baigazin uses clear and decisive visual elements: the river, the vast space of the steppe, the inner and outer solitude.
The immensity, the beauty of the area deserve a delicious choreography even when they play, swim or roll on the sand. Therefore, the recitation of the five males is artistic, accurate; it must demonstrate peace and they can exclusively find it in the river.
The description needs still-shots and long-shots to allow the brothers to participate in the environment until they enter into symbiosis with the river.
It is very large, never there is a framing of the other riverbanks, perfect location for the mystery.
Even the father loves the river: "The river always provokes desire". He too swims with passion, and he too is fascinated by modernity: he will win Kanat's tablet.
Kanat is the terrorist of the status quo; in one scenery, he adjusted the television and then all together watch a TV news program from North Korea.
He braves the cousins: "Who comes with me to the other side?" They had never dared.
They accept the challenge. It is the historical moment because two distant worlds meet; two different cultures try to understand each other.
In reality, they are already specular; they must find a common dialectic. However, before, the pandemonium must break out.
The boys make the spy of past misdeeds; they show how their attitude hid sadistic and nefarious secrets.
Even Aslan now resembles the father, rigid and authoritarian with the siblings: "You are becoming a man".
It is metaphysical film, often indecipherable, rich of stylish desires: Emir Baigazin narrates stimulation from: "... the paintings of Franz Marc." (1)
In some scenes, however, appears different influences: like Thomas Eakins in Swimming. Kanet first pisses in the river, and then he plunges. Then everyone pisses in the river and then jump into the water. This scene resembles the guys of Eakins, also choreographed, they have a circularity: someone dives, someone waits, someone is coming back: they have the same rhythm of the brothers.
Their physical postures remind the art of communist Russia, both for the statues and for a painter as Aleksandr Deineka with his wet and athletic guys at the sea.
There is even an ironic tone. In one scene, they are watching a TV news report on the stock market and exchange crisis. Funny for boys without comfort, who live thank to inhuman work in an arid steppe.
The steppe grows them quickly and at the same time saves them, keeping them separated from a futile bourgeois ceremony.
#English#English #MovieReview#MovieReview #Ozen #River #EmirBaigazin #ZhalgasKlanov #ZhasulanUserbayev #RuslanUserbayev #BagdauletSagindikov #SultanaliZhaksybek #KuandykKystykbayev #AidaIliyaskyzy #EricTazabekov #Kazakhstan #Almaty #75VeniceFilmFestival#75VeniceFilmFestival #VeniceFilmFestival#VeniceFilmFestival #Bible #Solomon #FranzMarc #ThomasEakins #Swimming #AleksandrDeineka