Ulzhan (2007)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.5/10   

Réalisateur:

Volker Schlöndorff

Writers:

Jean-Claude Carrière (writer)
Regis Ghezelbash (original idea)

Release Date:

13 décembre 2007 (Germany)

Genre:

Drame

Accroche:

Love sometimes lies at the end of the world

Plot:

Somewhere in the endless steppes of Central Asia lies a treasure. One man holds the key to it, a fragment of an ancient map...

Plot Keywords:

Kazakhstan | Gulag | Ruins | Horse | Nuclear Explosion

Avis des utilisateurs:

Painful to watch

Ensemble

Philippe Torreton	...	Charles
Ayanat Ksenbai	...	Ulzhan
David Bennent	...	Shakuni
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Zhaina Abdieva	...	Kazakh woman
Vladimir Aryskin	...	Painter
Tanyrbergen Berdongarov	...	Patron
Marek Brodzki	...	Manager
Zhaksybek Kurmanbekov	...	Men Shaman
Olga Landina	...	Olga
Shamshagui Mendiyarova	...	Woman Shaman
Maximilien Muller	...	Eric
Andrei Passagenikov	...	Photographer
Turakhan Sadykova	...	Grand-mother
Marhabat Sarkitpueva	...	Fashion show commentator
Serguey Urimtchev	...	Geologist

Autre(s) titre(s) :

Ulzhan (France)
Ulzhan - Das vergessene Licht (Germany)

Durée:

105 min

Pays:

Kazakhstan | Germany | France

Langue:

Français | Kazakh | Russe

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Classification:

Canada:14A | Germany:6

Company:

Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Metropolis: Cannes 2007 - Special" (2007)

Painful to watch

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Ulzhan (2007) Ulzhan is just about the worst type of trash that one runs into at film festivals. Ostensibly the story is about a French teacher who mysteriously stops his car on the side of a highway in the middle of Kazakhastan and starts walking East into the steppes. Despite being grounded in a very unassuming and naturalistic performance by Philippe Torreton and set against the very real backdrop of modern Kazakhastan, the film exists in a world of dream logic. Much of the dialog is alternatively poetic or lunatic and the relationships between French teacher and the two guides he picks up are only understandable on subconscious symbolic level, as in dreams.

At a symbolic level, the film appears to be about European involvement with the eastern world. The film takes place in the steppes of central Eurasia, the very border of the occidental and oriental worlds. Throughout the film we're consciously reminded of the cultural ('living in zoo vs. living in the jungle'), economic (international oil drilling), and environmental (aral sea, nuclear testing sites) impacts of occidental involvement in the orient. Unfortunately a lot of the comment seems to be overtly racist. The French man in many ways seems to represent the Occidental world in it's relationship with the oriental world. He is racked with self doubt, and existential concerns over his presence and purpose, which he describes as a search for 'treasure', but seems to be a desire for self-destruction. Despite his wish to remain uninvolved with anyone while on his search, a young local Kazakhastani woman, Ulzhan, who herself works as a French teacher insists on leaving everything to follow the French man and serve him as a slave (oh, the white man's burden). The comment seems to be that as much as Europeans/Americans may desire to remain uninvolved in the oriental worlds they invade for resources (etc.) they will find themselves playing the unwanted role of master to the oriental, even if they had not intended it. The film ends on the note of the oriental slave being the only one that can save the Europe from itself. Needless to say, a Toronto audience wasn't particularly impressed with the message. The film didn't receive a single clap at its conclusion, which is the first time I've seen that at any festival movie.