It’s not easy to make another #MeToo-themed film, given the abundance of arthouse cinema dealing with the issue. Perhaps in search of an original way to tell a story that has been told numerous times – an effort already suggested by the unusual title referring to an inside joke – Olga Korotko chooses to focus more on the inner world of her protagonist, letting the already predictable external events serve more as a backdrop for the gradual unveiling of her characteristics. This approach redeems the script (also written by Korotko), peppered with loose logic and clumsily compiled ideas, from failing to deliver meaning while also making the viewing experience pleasurable throughout the film’s duration. After gaining a place for her debut, Bad Bad Winter (2018), in the Cannes ACID line-up, Korotko’s next film, Crickets, It’s Your Turn [+lee también:
entrevista: Olga Korotko
ficha de la película], is currently locking horns in the Cineasti del Presente competition of the 77th Locarno Film Festival, standing out with its atmospheric aesthetics.

The fact that Merey (Inzhu Abeu), a 25-year-old photographer with a piercing gaze, is different from the rest is emphasised at the very beginning. When Nurlan (Ayan Batyrbek), one of the people among a group in a carnival mood and dressed accordingly, bumps into her and starts flirting with her, it already feels like a clash of entire worlds. Later on, he takes her to an avant-garde movie screening, and then introduces her to his male circle of friends, at which point she listens to nasty stories of rough sexual adventures. Given her sensitive nature, red flags should have been raised for her right there, but against all common sense, she accepts an invitation to a birthday party out of town with this virtual stranger, Nurlan, and his depraved friends. At the sight of the prostitutes they have invited to the villa belonging to the most arrogant one among them, Bahyt (Arnur Kusaingazin), the overall development of events is easy to predict. However, what holds viewers’ attention is the devil in the details – that mysterious aura around the heroine and the atmosphere she generates, which draws us fully into her realm.

Having claimed that she sought inspiration in the cinema of Kira Muratova, Korotko scatters peculiarities here and there in the plot, contributing to an enchanting experience – such as the strange, imaginary scenes in the white room that Merey invents and occupies her mind with when something upsets her. Thus, the visual expressiveness is softened in an otherwise Kill Bill kind of narrative, and even the most horrific happenings are far from explicit on screen. On the other hand, Korotko’s intention to create a bold juxtaposition between Merey’s complex female psyche and the male perception of women as mere prey is rather transparent – she looks, speaks and acts with a subtle tone of quiet disobedience that contrasts with the hookers’ predetermined behaviour tailored to please, the overall aggressive male preening, and even the hesitant demeanour of her suitor, whom she describes as “a lonely boy who desperately seeks the approval of a male collective”. Such a literal dichotomy, together with Merey’s monologue on the Darwinist concept of power towards the end for anyone who did not catch the general critical stance on the matter, makes the film sound declarative. However, Inzhu Abeu’s enigmatic face, containing in its expression an unadulterated curiosity about the world, sparking hope despite the underlying sadness, together with DoP Aigul Nurbulatova’s soft imagery sculpted by subdued light, leads one to stare at the screen in awe right until the very end.

Crickets, It’s Your Turn was produced by France’s Caractères Productions and Kazakhstan’s Seven Rivers. Cercamon manages the international sales.