Cadet

Resolutely, Alina and her son Serik are shown round the premises of the “best military school” in Kazakhstan by its headmaster. Alina will teach history here, of all places, and Serik will attend the school as a cadet. However, the discipline prescribed doesn’t work for the shy boy, with his girly hairstyle making him the target of malice and bullying, despite having the right connections – as Serik’s biological father is a key figure behind all the goings-on as a protector. It happens as it happens in (post-)horror: first one pupil dies, then the next. Murder? Suicide? And what role do the mothers play? Obfuscation, threats, harassment – an investigator from a municipal authority is tasked with finding out. The spiritus sovieticus also oozes out of every nook and cranny of this great film, the latest from Kazakh genre-auteur wunderkind Adilkhan Yerzhanov. In Cadet, this spirit seeps out as an education-of-monsters via architecture, ritual and rhetoric, physical violence and psycho-horror, as the cadaver’s stench from the dungeons of repressed history into the present of evil. Yerzhanov’s subtle and deliberately naïve question isn’t how evil is possible – but why good is possible. (Christiane Büchner, Barbara Wurm)

Adilkhan Yerzhanov was born in Kazakhstan in 1982. He studied filmmaking at the Kazakhstan National Academy of Arts and his films have twice been selected by the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Venice International Film Festival. His film The Owners received awards at many international film festivals and was included in the 100 Best Asian Films catalogue published by the Busan International Film Festival in 2015.

Director Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Screenplay Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Cinematography Yerkinbek Pturaliyev. Editing Arif Tleuzhanov. Music Sandro di Stefano. Sound Design Zurab Kurmanbayev. Sound Zurab Kurmangaliyev. Production Design Yermek Utegenov. Costumes Ainur Ainur. Casting Leila Sadykova. Producer Damir Yedilov. Executive Producers Akbota Kaisenova, Bibizhama Bekenova, Yerlan Bukharbayev. Production company Tiger Films (Almaty, Kazakhstan). With Anna Starchenko, Serik Sharipov, Ratmir Yusupzhanov, Alexey Shemes.

Films: 2011: Rieltor / Realtors. 2013: Stroiteli / Constructors. 2014: Ukili kamshat / The Owners. 2015: Istorija kazahskogo kinematografa / The Story of Kazakh Cinema: Underground of Kazakhfilm. 2016: Chuma v aule Karatas / The Plague at the Karatas Village. 2018: Nochnoj bog / Night God, Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira / The Gentle Indifference of the World. 2019: Boj Atbaja / Atbai’s Fight, Chyorniy, chyorniy chelovek / A Dark, Dark Man. 2020: Zheltaja koshka / Yellow Cat. 2021: Onbagandar / Herd Immunity. 2022: Ulbolsyn, Shturm / Assault, Goliaf / Goliath, Obuchenie Ademoki / Ademoka’s Education. 2024: Nosorog / Steppenwolf, Cadet.