Kazakhstan film-maker Adilkhan Yerzhanov's multiple award-winning transnational post-western (read on for more about that) gets a limited edition Blu-ray release from Arrow.
In a bleak landscape torn apart by a civil war between the police and rival gangs, traumatised and broken Tamara (Anna Starchenko) wants nothing more than to find her lost son. She enlists the aid of a violent, morally bankrupt cop (Berik Aitzhanov) who agrees to help her, initially because of the offer of money and later because he realises the man who has kidnapped the child is also the one who burned the rest of his family alive.
As they journey across one of the bleakest landscapes committed to film they encounter a collection of traumatised, selfish and immoral characters, very few of whom survive the cop's wrath. Eventually things culminate in a bloody and explosive showdown with their quarry.
There's an excellent extra on this disc in the form of a video essay from Lee Broughton that explains what a transnational post western is and why STEPPENWOLF fits the category, illustrating this with reference to a number of westerns, especially Clint Eastwood's Italian films (but also COOGAN'S BLUFF and UNFORGIVEN). With its post-apocalyptic feel it's also easy to consider STEPPENWOLF to be in the vein of George Miller's MAD MAX but hey, that gets classified as one of these transnational post westerns too.
David Flint provides an extremely listenable commentary track that goes into the themes discussed in Broughton's essay in more detail as well as explaining the significance of the film's title and its relationship to the Herman Hesse novel of the same name.
As a bonus another film by the director is included. 2022's GOLIATH features the same leading man in a tale of justice vs gang loyalty. It lacks the bleakest of bleak punches of STEPPENWOLF but if you enjoy the main feature you'll definitely want to take a look at it as well.
Finally, Arrow's limited edition comes with a reversible sleeve and a booklet featuring interviews with cast and crew, including composer Galymzhan Moldanazar who provides an excellent synthesiser score to the movie.
Adilkhan Yerzhanov's STEPPENWOLF is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 26th May 2025
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