There is almost nothing left of Kazahkstan's flourishing film industry of the '80s and it's a miracle that this film was made at all... as we watch Kazahkstan disintegrate before our eyes and this sad process is well shown in the film. The hopelessness and corruption running the show. Marat, the driver for a renowned scientist, has a fender bender while glancing back at his newborn baby, while returning from the hospital. And it's downhill from here. In this town you've got to pay for the damage when you bring in the car or else they keep the car... When Marat can't borrow money from his sister, he is forced to borrow money from a Mafia boss at 30 percent interest and when the car he was going to sell is stolen he is near the end of his rope. He is then given the task of assassinating a journalist to escape his debt. And becomes the killer! The film is slow and not very suspenseful, deliberate, with the nagging sense of a society disintegrating and now Marat must pay the piper...

Reviewed by Eric Michel, FilmCities