Steppenwolf

[Finch]

A brutal story of an unlikely duo who will stop at nothing to find what they are looking for, Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s award-winning film Steppenwolf is “a nihilistic, hyper-violent redemption tale filled with social commentary” (Molly Henery, The Blogging Banshee) and “a must-see for fans of ultra-violent, vicious and unforgiving revenge films” (Gary Gamble, Moviehooker).

Tamara (Anna Starchenko), a young lady consumed by trauma, searches for her missing son, Timka, in a small town dominated by riots and violence. In a desperate attempt to get him back, she teams up with an amoral former police investigator (Berik Aitzhanov) whose methods prove to be frequently cruel and sadistic. Quietly determined, Tamara decides to complete the mission with the nihilistic detective, no matter the cost, as the pair embark on a bloody and bullet-riddled road trip in their combined search for salvation. Winner of the Golden Raven Grand Prix at the 2024 Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and the Outstanding Performance Award for both Anna Starchenko and Berik Aitzhanov at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival, Steppenwolf is the latest film from acclaimed director Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Cannes-selected The Gentle Indifference of the World and Venice-selected Goliath) and Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky (Leviathan).

This Limited Edition release also includes Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s 2022 feature film Goliath, available for the very first time in the UK.

Special Features: LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS• High-Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of Steppenwolf and Goliath • Original lossless DTS HD-MA 5.1 surround audio for both films • English subtitles for both films • Optional Spanish subtitles available for Steppenwolf only • Brand new audio commentary on Steppenwolf with critic and pop culture historian David Flint, recorded exclusively for Arrow Video in 2025• Reading Steppenwolf as a Transnational Post-Western, a brand new visual essay by author, film historian and academic Lee Broughton, exploring the use of American and Italian Western genre tropes in Steppenwolf and other films from around the world • The Making of Steppenwolf, a 15-minute behind-the-scenes featurette featuring interviews with the cast and crew • Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new interviews with Steppenwolf cast and crew members including writer-director Adilkhan Yerzhanov, producer Aliya Mendygozhina, actors Berik Aitzhanov and Anna Starchenko, composer Galymzhan Moldanazar and cinematographer Yerkinbek Ptyraliyev• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

[Mr Sausage]

This was the best film I saw at last year's Fantasia Film Festival (EDIT: some thoughts here). It's bleak and brutally violent, but shot through with a strain of dry, black humour that really worked. There's also something oddly touching about it. And its apocalyptic desert world is represented so viscerally and pitilessly. Worth checking out.

[yoshimori]

"This Limited Edition release also includes Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s 2022 feature film Goliath, available for the very first time in the UK."

For me, Goliath is the superior film in this release. It does what most Yerzhanov films do - wrap nihilism and its cousin, absurdism, with art film aesthetics in some genre trappings - but does it more successfully than Steppenwolf does. The 2022 movie is the quieter one, so its ultra violence shocks by contrast. The 2024 film (bigger budget, bigger everything, non-stop violence) feels forced, and Berik Aitzhanov, who's perfectly fine in the earlier movie in which all he has to do is drag himself from place to place, can't pull off the pathos or the comedy that the more mainstream actioner requires.

Yerzhanov is one of today's top directors, iyam. He's young (42) and prolific (over a dozen features already). He's already made one great movie: A Dark, Dark Man (2019), a horrifying murder mystery played as deadpan comedy. Goliath is a slow-burning revenge story, and, though not as overtly engaging as A Dark, Dark Man, may be his next most aesthetically unified work.

A Dark, Dark Man Trailer
Goliath Trailer