San Francisco International Film Festival 2014

[Chris Knipp]

EMIR BAIGAZIN: HARMONY LESSONS (2013)


TIMUR AIDERBEKOV IN HARMONY LESSONS

Under a lot of pressure at school

Emir Baigazin's ironically titled Harmony Lessons is a stark tale of boys exploiting their own at a rural school in Kazakhstan. This first film debuted in competition at the Berlinale and met with acclaim, though it may prove rough viewing for the general audience. The focus is on one boy who is humiliated during medical exams. Some of the boys are like gangsters who extort payment from the others to in turn pay off their upperclassmen "bosses." Some of this is fanciful and dreamlike, and toward the end, the movie increasingly enters the world of the young protagonist's dreams and fantasies. This is a nightmare vision for all those who didn't enjoy their school days. Baigazin is an original talent. The comparisons to Bresson may be misplaced, but Harmony Lessons leaves an impression.

Aslan (Timur Aidarbekov), the protagonist, lives out on a little farm with his grandmother, who works in a butcher shop, and in the cool, procedural opening sequence he catches, kills (in Muslim fashion, but forgetting to say the "bismullah"), skins and disembowels a sheep as his granny stands by. Oddly enough Aslan proves to be a lean, intellectual type, a brilliant boy. "You have great skill, but I don't know what is in your mind," says his beautiful ultra-orthodoz Muslim classmate Akzhan (Anelya Adilbekova), in whom he is plainly interested. His main adversary is the cocky, athletic Bolat (Aslan Anarbayev), the local bully and extortionist who after the physical exam incident orders Aslan's classmates to exclude him from all conersations and greetings. The fly in the ointment for Bolat is Mirsain (Mukhtar Andassov), who's come from the city temporarily while his parents are getting a divorce and who dares to stand up to the bullies and chooses to sit next to Aslan in class. There is also a littler boy who talks to Aslan: he has the misfortune in such a place to possess a shiny white pair of expensive trainers.

Aslan, excluded, follows his own pursuits, which seem sinister, but also ingenious. Hearing cockroaches carry viruses, he begins catching and electrocuting them. He even devises an insect electric chair. An he cooks up another weapon designed for humans.

Mirsain has polish and confidence, but in their dark blue suits the boys look alike, and the new environment, this cruel, arbitrary, punitive society, wears Mirsain down. Finally he is left only with his somewhat pathetic dream of an amusement hall called Happylon back home that he has an entrance card for. To him it's a paradise where one is careless and happy and all the girls are pretty and available.

Meanwhile the hierarchy of bully boys keeps meeting, and their schemes and rules are beyond human understanding; it would be better if Baigazin were a bit less sketchy in his inventions at times; but what is clear is that though Bolat may look down on and humiliate Aslan, there are those older boys who look down on and humiliate him. Obviously things are moving toward retribution and violence. What form this will take and how it will play out with the authorities in the town we would not necessarily predict. Emir Baigazin has a distinctive imagination and he is good at bringing it to life. Baigazin creates his own world, a well-tweaked version of the world he finds at hand. He has made extraordinary use of non-actors, and created an ultra-stripped-down version of a rural classroom. He juggles many details, but they never get in the way of his main effects. Recommended, but not for the squeamish or for vegetarians.

Harmony Lessons/Uroki garmonii, 104 mins., debuted 14 February 2013 at Berlin, many festivals since. Numerous nominations and prizes in 2014. Besides the directing, the Red camera cinematography of Aziz Zhambakiyev has been frequently mentioned. Theatrical opening 26 March 2014 in France, meeting with critical acclaim (Allociné press rating 3.9 out of 14 publications). Screened for this review as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival (24 April-8 May 2014).