A traumatized woman joins forces with a psychotic former police officer to locate her kidnapped son in Steppenwolf. In a dystopian future, Kazakhstan has turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where lawlessness rules. Tamara (Anna Starchenko) is a despondent woman, so consumed by trauma that she can barely speak. She wanders into a police station and asks brutal interrogator Brajyuk (Berik Aitzhanov) for help finding her kidnapped son Timka. Brajyuk agrees to do so if only to get himself close to the local warlord Tahu.
Steppenwolf Synopsis
Steppenwolf is a brutal post-apocalyptic drama written and directed by Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov. The film is set in a brutal post-apocalyptic world, where children are kidnapped for organ harvesting. The protagonist Tamara wants to find her son Timka before this happens to him. She seeks help from former detective Brajyuk, who is the very epitome of an anti-hero, not afraid to use brutal violence to get his way.
My Thoughts on Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf is a brutal and unforgiving film, featuring some quite nasty scenes of violence, including a notable one where a man has one hand crushed by a car and the other one is brutally smashed with a hammer. However, Steppenwolf has quite memorable lead performances by Anna Starchenko and Berik Aitzhanov and an equally memorable synth score. While the film is not for everyone, Steppenwolf has the makings of a post-apocalyptic cult classic.
