The Assault

The Magnificent Seven in Kazakhstan? Masked gunmen march into a school in Karatasha and take pupils hostage. A maths teacher, who knows the army won't arrive for two days, decides to assemble his own assault team: his ex-wife, a gym teacher, a cowardly school principal, a perpetually drunk night watchman, the village idiot, and the incompetent local police head. What follows is an unconventional action film, a comedy thriller in which the enemy hides not behind masks but in the minds of the liberators. Comparisons with the hostage-taking in Beslan and Kazan are unavoidable. But Karatas – the mythical village in which director Adilkhan Yerzhanov's previous films are set – could be anywhere. (Art Film Fest)