Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira

This Kazakh masterpiece is almost a 9. But a conscious decision to tell a melodrama while killing the drama almost completely makes this movie hard to connect with. Aesthetically and technicly I would rate it 10, without a shadow of a doubt. But the emotional detachment forced upon the story by the director maybe reffering to the movie's title "The Gentle Indifference of the World" - a quote from The Stranger of Albert Camus, a quote made in the movie by the two leading characters.

The movie uses aesthetic cross references, such as the paintings of Henri Rousseau, the most obvious representative of Naive art, whose pictures are shown in the film more than once, blending perfectly with the amazingly static camera used by Adilkhan Yerzhanov and the strong frame he enhance each scene with. His caracters are Naive, they are aware of their own naivity but keep on hoping they will prevail.

It's a difficult one to watch, because it chooses to be so very gentle, no matter how brutal the story is. And I personally wasn't always so very happy with that gentleness, though I do appreciate the art and mastery required to achieve it.