Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

A film shot in Kazhakstan has novelty appeal for me and curiosity about what the place looks like is satisfied in "Shiza" (Schizo, 2004). There are some striking visual compositions. Unlike in many of the films I've been watching lately, there is also a plot. Though more of the film happens by day than by night, it is a neo-noir with some very unsavory goings on -- illegal bare-knuckles fights leading to death usually. Plus a hold-up and a revenge killing. It does not have a fatale femme fatale, though Zinka (Olga Landina) aspires to cynicism.

The title character (under either English-language title, "Schizo" and "The Recruiter"), fifteen-year-old Mustafa (Oldzhas Nusupbayev) is with his mother having a neurological test at the start of the film. He has been expelled from school for an incident in which he was the victim rather than the perpetrator. The kindly doctor (Viktor Sukhorukov) prescribes pills and a referral to a specialist in "the city."

Mustafa doesn't care about going back to being bullied in school (where everyone calls him "Schizo") and is happy to become the assistant of his mother's boyfriend, Sakura (Eduard Tabishev), a day laborer who also recruits poor young men for the no-rules fights. Not least in that Mustafa is a sympathetic, seemingly simple-minded (but in no way seeming to be schizophrenic) youth, he (Mustafa) is effective at recruiting fighter, including an uncle who shocks the sinister fight organizer Almaz (Khorabek Musabayev) by killing one of Almaz's stable of brutes in the ring.

There is some wrenching violence in the film, not to mention considerable exploitation. Yet a kind of sweetness prevails. Shiza is rather blank-faced, but is good-hearted. He is concerned about the son and girlfriend of one of the youths who is beaten to death in the ring. He is very sexually diffident and at ease playing with the boy.

Most everyone regards him as being slow-witted. He is not very verbal, and is naive in many ways, but shows that he can react quickly enough.

There are a number of surprises, beginning in the doctor's office. The other characters don't realize how much Mustafa takes in with his big dark eyes peering out from under black bangs. Olga Landina is quite sympathetic in a kind of Sissy Spacek role. The film has something of the flatland lyricism of "Badlands," in fact. Cinematographer Khasan Kydyraliyev provides some very striking shots of decaying buildings from the Soviet era (and a boat on stilts that might be from czarist times!) and the vast flatness of the countryside.

Although it sounds oxymoronic, "Schizo" is a charming neo-noir. It is considerably less mannered than "Fight Club," a movie that inevitable comes to mind despite the guileless country folks rather than jaded urbanites who populate "Schizo." In providing a sympathetic central Asian over his head in lethal entertainment, it also brings to mind "13 Tzameti") and the combination of lethal games and offbest romance in "Kontroll.". Guka Omarova's first feature film is an impressive accomplishment, though difficult to market (too charming for hardcore violence aficionados, with way too much brutality for those seeking offbeat romances or portrayals of rural idylls, on top of being subtitled).

Some scenes may seem held long, but in contrast to my recent film fare, "Schizo" is fast paced (and it does have its share of jolts!).

BTW, both the young boys were found by producer-writer-director Omarova in orphanages.

The only DVD bonus feature is a trailer plus trailers from some other DVD releases.

© 2008, Stephen O. Murray



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD