Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Starring: Daniyar Alshinov, Dinara Baktybayeva, Teoman Khos
If Borat sullied the global image of the nation of
Kazakhstan, director Adilkhan Yerzhanov isn't doing his
country's tourist board any favours with his latest feature, crooked cop
thriller A Dark, Dark Man. Here, rural Kazakhstan is portrayed as a lawless frontier where murders
are routinely covered up by cops on the payroll of violent mobsters, where
suspects are beaten into confessions just so a cop can clock out on time.
But like any good western, the human horrors play out against a stunning
natural backdrop.
The opening sequence sets the scene for what's to follow as a cop bribes a
mentally challenged man, Pekuar (Teoman Khos), for his semen,
which he then smears onto the corpse of a young boy. Pekuar is taken into
custody by young but world weary detective Bekzat (Daniar Alshinov, a
Kazakh Brad Pitt). At the behest of a local gangster, the plan is for Bekzat
to murder Pekuar and make it look like a suicide, but a spanner is thrown in
the works in the form of Ariana (Dinara Baktybaeva), a big city
journalist who has been assigned to shadow Bekzat in the investigation he
never had any intentions of undertaking.
Yerzhanov's premise is so high concept that it's amazing it hasn't been
employed before. The closest I can think of are movies like
Best Seller and Man Bites Dog, but the difference here is that the reporter tailing Bekzat has no idea
of the atrocities he's committing under her nose. Much of the film's inky
black comedy arises from how casual Bekzat is in flaunting his position as a
guardian of the peace. He bribes, beats up and even flat out murders
witnesses while Ariana is just around the corner or waiting in the car
outside. When she brings up uncomfortable questions about why so many
suspects have apparently taken their own lives while in his custody, he has
a well rehearsed line of bullshit to placate her with.
Imagine the bastard love child of S. Craig Zahler and Nuri Bilge Ceylan,
and you'll have an idea of the distinctively dark delights of
A Dark, Dark Man. As with Ceylan's films, Yerzhanov's consists largely of a series of
encounters in rooms between Bekzat and the various people who are
threatening to ruin his day. From Zahler comes the black-as-night humour,
and the curious ability to make us care about someone we'd cross the street
to avoid in real life. As anti-heroes go, Bekzat is one of the most immoral
to ever grace the screen, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say he earns
a redemption, Ariana's probing does gradually get under his skin, leading to
him turning the tables, Wild Bunch style, on his oppressors in
the final act. There's something of the relationship between Clint
Eastwood's gunfighter and Shirley MacLaine's nun in
Two Mules for Sister Sara to be found in that of Bekzat and
Ariana.
With immaculately framed widescreen imagery that often recalls Sergio
Leone, A Dark, Dark Man plays out like a Film Noir
transplanted to a western setting. It's the sort of movie the McDonagh
brothers have been trying and failing to make their whole careers. Unlike
Martin and John Michael, Yerzhanov has found a way to balance his
story's nihilism with a rich vein of humour. It works equally as a gritty
crime thriller, a takedown of Kazakh corruption, and a laugh out loud comedy
about a man who just wants to get out of his work clothes by six
o'clock.
