Kazakhstan
2018 113 mins OV Russian Subtitles : English
« Yerzanov s'impose comme un cinéaste à suivre de près »
Philippe Delvaux, SUEURS FROIDES “This is a spellbinder by a master of sound and image and a poet of dispossession”
Jonathan RosenbaumA father and his daughter arrive in a dying town, travellers from nowhere, going nowhere, in a land of soot, snow and fog. Smothered in darkness, an obscurity cheated by a few flickering artificial lights and ever-menacing comets, the world is slowly descending into chaos. The Apocalypse is near, and people are fearful of the Night God. Soon he will appear in the sky, they say, burning anyone who dares look at his enraged face.
Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s films have made it into the most prestigious festivals, including Cannes (
THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD,
THE OWNERS) and Rotterdam (
THE PLAGUE AT THE KARATAS VILLAGE). Mostly known for his independent social-realist films, he is a well-established auteur with a strong sense of style and a delicate charm, turning here to the fantastical with his fifth and most ambitious feature yet. Roy Anderson, Nicolas Winding Refn and Alejandro Jodorowsky are just a few names that come to mind when under the spell of the
NIGHT GOD. Violent and absurd, crepuscular and hypnotizing, here is an assured vision, a waking nightmare, an unknowable maze of gigantic moving paintings, reminding one at times of the painter Carel Willink. Crackling fire and drops of water resonate and create a hypnotic soundscape, both calming and angst-ridden. In this world, there is no more time and no more meaning. Rather, Yerzhanov paints a landscape of despair with his languid camera, a surreal theatre where the nearly-dead bulk of humanity seems trapped in an eternal (de)construction site, ever-continuing on its absurd cycle. A snapshot of the times.
– Celia Pouzet
