The Wounded Angel
Kazakhstan
Emir Baigazin
The story of “The Wounded Angel” consists of four short novels. Teenagers are the protagonists in all of them. The story takes place in the 90s.
THE INTRODUCTION scene of the film is a set up in the school’s assembly hall where Balapan rehearses Ave Maria for the upcoming talent contest. This is an ordinary and untiring song for everyone who has a beautiful high-pitched voice a la Robertino Loretti. Balapan is 13 years all just like his friends. He is light-haired, puny boy with green eyes and yet not broken voice. His peers do not call him by his name - they prefer Balapan instead. This has a sense behind it - Batyr, that’s his real name, has many times won the “Anshi Balapan” contest, which is the Kazakh for “Singing Chicken”.
The rest three protagonists sit in the stands listening to Ave Maria: Zhaba, Zharas and Aslan. They sit apart from each other. They are no friends, not even some buddies. It’s just the occasion or perhaps laziness that brought them al there.
Zharas checks the watch, gets up and heads out. In some time, Aslan leaves the room. Zhaba leaves in a moment too. The guys walk the hallways in one direction. Aslan meets Rose on the way. She wants to spend some time with him, but he escapes her. He doesn’t want Zhaba or anyone else following him to know about him and Rose.
The guys get down to the basement where a mob of teenagers gathered around a pile of broken desks. Opposite of them stands SHOKAN - a twenty-year-old who still can’t wave the school a goodbye. Having showed off with his knife handling skills, Shokan starts his meaningful speech about charity and helping the close friends. From time to time, kids pitch in cigarettes money and food into his bag. He is collecting the “Warm-Up”. In other words, those who help the criminals today, warm up the place in the jail if they ever get there. Zhaba, Aslan, and Zharas are among the gathered crowd. Shokan doesn’t need to use force. He sees the common fear of the teenagers. Moreover, “warm-up” is something Sacred, you don’t get beaten up for that. Everything they bring - they bring voluntarily, from their hearts.
Zhaba, Zharas and Aslan didn’t bring anything to the gathering. Throughout their interaction with Shokan, we get to know each of them better, their principles, values, and habits.
This brings us to a moment when we tell a short story about each one of them, including the story of the above-mentioned Balapan.
Short novel «ZHARAS’S WAY». The story of fatalism.
Zharas takes the center stage of this story. Taking a look at a clear-headed Zharas, one can confidently say that he is going to make it in this life. He is tall, strong, and handsome in a way - this boy has all chances to become somebody in the big world. He is modest, not a chatterbox, and e very serious fellow. People would talk good things about him if not for one circumstance. Zharas’s father is a thief. This is a stain for a teenager and a permanent hang-up in his mind. Trying to cleanse himself from a bad reputation of his father who came back from prison recently, Zharas does his best to look honest and right-minded before the rural residents. From early morning till late night he works as a freight mover at the bazaar and in a dialogue with Shokan in the prologue of the film, Zharas is dedicated when telling Shokan he is not going to warm up the spot in prison. However, the strive to look good and right in the eyes of people changes to the love and loyalty to his father because a boy needs a father, whoever he might be. And his father is desperate for a job to start a newer life and some money to bribe people to get this job...
Zharas really wants to help and, not even knowing the fact, he is going for a theft. Unskilled amateur thief gets easily caught and the word spreads out like shockwave - Like father, like son... That is why Shokan keeps repeating the old Russian saying at their get-together “ There is no fence against ill fortune”
Story «BALAPAN’S CRY». The story of the fall
We wrote about Balapan before. We should add that in his 13 years of age the boy has never fought anyone. Can you imagine Robertino Loretti brawling? I don’t think so. Balapan has never visited the boyish gatherings thus having a reputation of a punching bag among others.
What’s interesting - the stage of the community center served as the limelight spot for Balapan at daytime when he would win yet another singing contest, but at night time they would stretch the ropes there and hold the regional boxing competition. Serik was the winner of this competition - a nice lad, respected by the rest of the guys. This is how two winners met - Balapan and Serik, a singer and a boxer. No matter how different the two were, there was one trait to join them - childish simplicity. They even looked alike. The story of this friendship starts with Serik, who wants Balapan to pay the dues to all of his offenders. However, Balapan cannot do it even with the support of Serik and his friends. He simply cannot hit a person. Balapan starts skipping his rehearsals to spend more time with Serik. The high point of the novel is the occurrence prior to the upcoming boxing competitions. The day before the final bouts, a group of criminal authorities visit Serik and ask him to forfeit the fight. Serik refuses despite the threats from the criminals. Two hours before the fight, a crowd of Balapan offenders break into the locker room and beat Serik up badly.
Serik is taken to the hospital. Balapan, however, remembers of Serik’s last wish to fight this bout. Before the eyes of the hyped crowd, the poor boxer and the true hero gets knocked out in the very first seconds of the bout.
In some time, Balapan gets to the hospital with a fractured jaw where he shares the ward with Serik.
Bruises will heal but one thing is lost forever - the childish voice of Balapan, which had to break someday. It would take vocal teachers long to forget the talented singer, and he would soon learn how to fiercely beat up his opponents and make other call him by his real name.
The last scene of the novel: A fight. Delirious Balapan sits on top of his opponent and beats him up with his bloody fists.
Short novel «ZHABA’S SENTENCE». The story of greed
Zhaba is the protagonist of this story. He has big lips and big eyes. His greatest and depressing psychological complex is his family’s financial situation. This is not just a need, but really a poverty. His family is himself and his mother. The call him Zhaba (the Russian for Toad) because someone has once seen him get out of the manhole to start drinking water from the puddle. With all his pathetical living, Zhaba was a proud kid who would never do something like this. But the manhole story is something Zhaba would talk about himself. He is all about the underground. He would go down the sewage at on part of town and later come out at the other end. The underground attracted him with its treasures. Zhaba loved the irons and base metals, which he would find and exchange for money at the buying spots. If some one would ever complain about the stolen copper cable, that would be Zhaba. So that is why everyone knew that copper is gold for Zhaba. Zhaba had no father. Once his mother, a janitor at school, gave him a Monopoly board game. Holding the cardboard money with lots of zeroes, Zhaba mastered this game quickly thus developing his greatest shortcoming - greed. Every night he would look at the Mendeleyev’s table of elements and count his saved money. Suffering from humiliating poverty throughout his short life, Zhaba realized that money is the main idea for him. For money, Zhaba is ready to commit even the deep sin.
He found a secret underground way to the neglected factory premises. there, he finds the grasslands of precious base metals. However, he encounters the competition - the Gluey’s - glue sniffers, residing in the Steel Works premises. Those are the kids who ran away from the deranged kids shelter. Zhaba doesn’t feel like sharing and he kills them all in the undergrounds. While the glue sniffers are high (they themselves call this state “meeting with wounded angel”), Zhaba places the can with kerosene on the furnace and locks the glue sniffers inside. They all burn in fire.
Afterwards, he comes home to realize the irreversibility of what happened.
The story ends with Zhaba spending all the saved money to buy a flock of sheep in the market. He cuts the meat and sends it to the deranged kids shelter. Then he makes a self-made bomb and just stays there until it detonates.
Story «ASLAN’S TREE». The story of fear and sin
At first sight, Aslan is the most balanced of all the protagonists. He knows best that a man has to do three simple things: build a house, up bring a son and plant a tree. Aslan has a girlfriend - Rose. She is the same age as him. Moreover, these young kids live like a man and a woman, like adults do. Aslan keeps winning regional natural sciences contests and knows a great deal of female body anatomy. Perhaps, this knowledge influences his early sex life. Aslan dreams of leaving for the city as soon as possible to enter the medical school.
The life of the 13-year-old takes a sharp turn when he finds out that Rosa is pregnant with his baby. Aslan can’t get past the idea of the life for the child in the rural province, where every inconsiderate act casts a long sinful shadow. He makes he do the abortion. Unconventional abortion made by an amateur medic ends up unfortunately for Rose, planting the seeds of guilt and pity inside the teenager’s soul.
However this story is only about to begin. Aslan’s fears and regrets rapidly grow from day to day causing a serious psychological trauma. He stops studying, he burns down a classroom, he keeps strangling himself, he punches himself in the stomach and then, all of a sudden, he start drinking way too much water.
Once a morning he would calmly and unhesitatingly tell his folks that there is a tree growing inside of him. And he has a mission not to let it die. Now he would not leave the house and walk around it with a jar with water drinking it constantly.
His parents are confused. Father beats up his son, his mother hides the jars away from him. The parents take their son to the healer. But it all brings no result. Now Aslan takes all the furniture out from his room and brings it over to the parent’s bedroom. He explains that the tree will soon grow and it needs more space. Soon, even parents start treating the tree inside their son seriously.
This story ends in an open finale. Aslan sits in the bus and looks outside the window. He sees lonely trees outside. Aslan thinks he is taken to the city for the entering exams to a medical school however they take him to psychiatrist.
Epilogue. «THE GAME»
The film ends with Shokan’s monologue in the basement at the gathering. If his first speech was dedicated to charity, this time he turns round the meaning and prepares the boys to a massive fight. Kids hold clubs, chains and brass knuckles. The eyes project fear. When Shokan finishes his speech, the boys carefully come out from the basement to the light of day.
FINAL symbolic scene. Winter. Prankish teenagers play a game of leap-frog. A dozen of guys stand bent over head-to-rear, like a train. The other dozen, one by one, run up and try to jump on that train. The task of those, under them is to carry them all to a mark - which is a tree. The ones on top have fun sitting like kings and the boys below suffer pain and weariness. And over this picturesque visual, the red disk of the sun sets down. We hear mothers calling their kids to go home. They will switch the power off soon and the homework will have to be done under the candlelight or the light of a petrol-lamp.
THE INTRODUCTION scene of the film is a set up in the school’s assembly hall where Balapan rehearses Ave Maria for the upcoming talent contest. This is an ordinary and untiring song for everyone who has a beautiful high-pitched voice a la Robertino Loretti. Balapan is 13 years all just like his friends. He is light-haired, puny boy with green eyes and yet not broken voice. His peers do not call him by his name - they prefer Balapan instead. This has a sense behind it - Batyr, that’s his real name, has many times won the “Anshi Balapan” contest, which is the Kazakh for “Singing Chicken”.
The rest three protagonists sit in the stands listening to Ave Maria: Zhaba, Zharas and Aslan. They sit apart from each other. They are no friends, not even some buddies. It’s just the occasion or perhaps laziness that brought them al there.
Zharas checks the watch, gets up and heads out. In some time, Aslan leaves the room. Zhaba leaves in a moment too. The guys walk the hallways in one direction. Aslan meets Rose on the way. She wants to spend some time with him, but he escapes her. He doesn’t want Zhaba or anyone else following him to know about him and Rose.
The guys get down to the basement where a mob of teenagers gathered around a pile of broken desks. Opposite of them stands SHOKAN - a twenty-year-old who still can’t wave the school a goodbye. Having showed off with his knife handling skills, Shokan starts his meaningful speech about charity and helping the close friends. From time to time, kids pitch in cigarettes money and food into his bag. He is collecting the “Warm-Up”. In other words, those who help the criminals today, warm up the place in the jail if they ever get there. Zhaba, Aslan, and Zharas are among the gathered crowd. Shokan doesn’t need to use force. He sees the common fear of the teenagers. Moreover, “warm-up” is something Sacred, you don’t get beaten up for that. Everything they bring - they bring voluntarily, from their hearts.
Zhaba, Zharas and Aslan didn’t bring anything to the gathering. Throughout their interaction with Shokan, we get to know each of them better, their principles, values, and habits.
This brings us to a moment when we tell a short story about each one of them, including the story of the above-mentioned Balapan.
Short novel «ZHARAS’S WAY». The story of fatalism.
Zharas takes the center stage of this story. Taking a look at a clear-headed Zharas, one can confidently say that he is going to make it in this life. He is tall, strong, and handsome in a way - this boy has all chances to become somebody in the big world. He is modest, not a chatterbox, and e very serious fellow. People would talk good things about him if not for one circumstance. Zharas’s father is a thief. This is a stain for a teenager and a permanent hang-up in his mind. Trying to cleanse himself from a bad reputation of his father who came back from prison recently, Zharas does his best to look honest and right-minded before the rural residents. From early morning till late night he works as a freight mover at the bazaar and in a dialogue with Shokan in the prologue of the film, Zharas is dedicated when telling Shokan he is not going to warm up the spot in prison. However, the strive to look good and right in the eyes of people changes to the love and loyalty to his father because a boy needs a father, whoever he might be. And his father is desperate for a job to start a newer life and some money to bribe people to get this job...
Zharas really wants to help and, not even knowing the fact, he is going for a theft. Unskilled amateur thief gets easily caught and the word spreads out like shockwave - Like father, like son... That is why Shokan keeps repeating the old Russian saying at their get-together “ There is no fence against ill fortune”
Story «BALAPAN’S CRY». The story of the fall
We wrote about Balapan before. We should add that in his 13 years of age the boy has never fought anyone. Can you imagine Robertino Loretti brawling? I don’t think so. Balapan has never visited the boyish gatherings thus having a reputation of a punching bag among others.
What’s interesting - the stage of the community center served as the limelight spot for Balapan at daytime when he would win yet another singing contest, but at night time they would stretch the ropes there and hold the regional boxing competition. Serik was the winner of this competition - a nice lad, respected by the rest of the guys. This is how two winners met - Balapan and Serik, a singer and a boxer. No matter how different the two were, there was one trait to join them - childish simplicity. They even looked alike. The story of this friendship starts with Serik, who wants Balapan to pay the dues to all of his offenders. However, Balapan cannot do it even with the support of Serik and his friends. He simply cannot hit a person. Balapan starts skipping his rehearsals to spend more time with Serik. The high point of the novel is the occurrence prior to the upcoming boxing competitions. The day before the final bouts, a group of criminal authorities visit Serik and ask him to forfeit the fight. Serik refuses despite the threats from the criminals. Two hours before the fight, a crowd of Balapan offenders break into the locker room and beat Serik up badly.
Serik is taken to the hospital. Balapan, however, remembers of Serik’s last wish to fight this bout. Before the eyes of the hyped crowd, the poor boxer and the true hero gets knocked out in the very first seconds of the bout.
In some time, Balapan gets to the hospital with a fractured jaw where he shares the ward with Serik.
Bruises will heal but one thing is lost forever - the childish voice of Balapan, which had to break someday. It would take vocal teachers long to forget the talented singer, and he would soon learn how to fiercely beat up his opponents and make other call him by his real name.
The last scene of the novel: A fight. Delirious Balapan sits on top of his opponent and beats him up with his bloody fists.
Short novel «ZHABA’S SENTENCE». The story of greed
Zhaba is the protagonist of this story. He has big lips and big eyes. His greatest and depressing psychological complex is his family’s financial situation. This is not just a need, but really a poverty. His family is himself and his mother. The call him Zhaba (the Russian for Toad) because someone has once seen him get out of the manhole to start drinking water from the puddle. With all his pathetical living, Zhaba was a proud kid who would never do something like this. But the manhole story is something Zhaba would talk about himself. He is all about the underground. He would go down the sewage at on part of town and later come out at the other end. The underground attracted him with its treasures. Zhaba loved the irons and base metals, which he would find and exchange for money at the buying spots. If some one would ever complain about the stolen copper cable, that would be Zhaba. So that is why everyone knew that copper is gold for Zhaba. Zhaba had no father. Once his mother, a janitor at school, gave him a Monopoly board game. Holding the cardboard money with lots of zeroes, Zhaba mastered this game quickly thus developing his greatest shortcoming - greed. Every night he would look at the Mendeleyev’s table of elements and count his saved money. Suffering from humiliating poverty throughout his short life, Zhaba realized that money is the main idea for him. For money, Zhaba is ready to commit even the deep sin.
He found a secret underground way to the neglected factory premises. there, he finds the grasslands of precious base metals. However, he encounters the competition - the Gluey’s - glue sniffers, residing in the Steel Works premises. Those are the kids who ran away from the deranged kids shelter. Zhaba doesn’t feel like sharing and he kills them all in the undergrounds. While the glue sniffers are high (they themselves call this state “meeting with wounded angel”), Zhaba places the can with kerosene on the furnace and locks the glue sniffers inside. They all burn in fire.
Afterwards, he comes home to realize the irreversibility of what happened.
The story ends with Zhaba spending all the saved money to buy a flock of sheep in the market. He cuts the meat and sends it to the deranged kids shelter. Then he makes a self-made bomb and just stays there until it detonates.
Story «ASLAN’S TREE». The story of fear and sin
At first sight, Aslan is the most balanced of all the protagonists. He knows best that a man has to do three simple things: build a house, up bring a son and plant a tree. Aslan has a girlfriend - Rose. She is the same age as him. Moreover, these young kids live like a man and a woman, like adults do. Aslan keeps winning regional natural sciences contests and knows a great deal of female body anatomy. Perhaps, this knowledge influences his early sex life. Aslan dreams of leaving for the city as soon as possible to enter the medical school.
The life of the 13-year-old takes a sharp turn when he finds out that Rosa is pregnant with his baby. Aslan can’t get past the idea of the life for the child in the rural province, where every inconsiderate act casts a long sinful shadow. He makes he do the abortion. Unconventional abortion made by an amateur medic ends up unfortunately for Rose, planting the seeds of guilt and pity inside the teenager’s soul.
However this story is only about to begin. Aslan’s fears and regrets rapidly grow from day to day causing a serious psychological trauma. He stops studying, he burns down a classroom, he keeps strangling himself, he punches himself in the stomach and then, all of a sudden, he start drinking way too much water.
Once a morning he would calmly and unhesitatingly tell his folks that there is a tree growing inside of him. And he has a mission not to let it die. Now he would not leave the house and walk around it with a jar with water drinking it constantly.
His parents are confused. Father beats up his son, his mother hides the jars away from him. The parents take their son to the healer. But it all brings no result. Now Aslan takes all the furniture out from his room and brings it over to the parent’s bedroom. He explains that the tree will soon grow and it needs more space. Soon, even parents start treating the tree inside their son seriously.
This story ends in an open finale. Aslan sits in the bus and looks outside the window. He sees lonely trees outside. Aslan thinks he is taken to the city for the entering exams to a medical school however they take him to psychiatrist.
Epilogue. «THE GAME»
The film ends with Shokan’s monologue in the basement at the gathering. If his first speech was dedicated to charity, this time he turns round the meaning and prepares the boys to a massive fight. Kids hold clubs, chains and brass knuckles. The eyes project fear. When Shokan finishes his speech, the boys carefully come out from the basement to the light of day.
FINAL symbolic scene. Winter. Prankish teenagers play a game of leap-frog. A dozen of guys stand bent over head-to-rear, like a train. The other dozen, one by one, run up and try to jump on that train. The task of those, under them is to carry them all to a mark - which is a tree. The ones on top have fun sitting like kings and the boys below suffer pain and weariness. And over this picturesque visual, the red disk of the sun sets down. We hear mothers calling their kids to go home. They will switch the power off soon and the homework will have to be done under the candlelight or the light of a petrol-lamp.
Support:
Festivals and Awards:
Berlin 2016, section Panorama
Jeonju 2016: Special Jury Prize
Kosice Art Film Fest 2016: Blue Angel for Best Director
Fünf Seen Filmfestival 2016: Grand Prix for Best Film
Almaty 2016, Eurasia Filmfestival: Prize FIPRESCI
Jeonju 2016: Special Jury Prize
Kosice Art Film Fest 2016: Blue Angel for Best Director
Fünf Seen Filmfestival 2016: Grand Prix for Best Film
Almaty 2016, Eurasia Filmfestival: Prize FIPRESCI
World Sales:
Capricci Film