Rayony

The truth about this film is that it just wasn't what I thought it would be. It's set in Almaty during the early 90s, but really felt like it was set in 1970s with the style of costumes.

The break up of the soviet union and emergence of Kazakhstan was largely rendered invisible. You'd get a few hints like cccp logos and the key plot devices that Arsens father passed in Afghanistan. You could just see soviet settings for most of the indoor scenes.

But the acting outside of the exasperated mother rarely felt persuasive. And these were very good actors. There were many almost Bollywood like fight scenes carefully choreographed but the key fight was well done.part of the problem in the film is leaving unspoken quite crucial elements, in this case, explaining why senior gang members made certain decisions or how the main character ended up where he did.

I liked how one of the characters would explain anime style how gangs worked, with cutaway scenes. Those were key and quite well done. But also a bit of a distraction.