프로그램

Metal Noir

Cadet

Adilkhan YERZHANOV|Kazakhstan|2024|123min |Korean Premiere |15+

Schedule

Schedule to be announced on June 17 (WED) at 15:00 (KST)

Unless otherwise indicated by the Subtitle code below, English subtitles are provided for all non-English language films.
별아이콘 Notice of No English-Subtitle

Schedule

Schedule to be announced on June 17 (WED) at 15:00 (KST)

Unless otherwise indicated by the Subtitle code below, English subtitles are provided for all non-English language films.
별아이콘 Notice of No English-Subtitle

Program Note

Adilkhan Yerzhanov, one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent filmmakers, is known for his unique formal beauty and critical perspective on power, authority, and systemic structures. His latest work, Cadet, is a horror thriller set in a remote military academy, where a series of murders uncovers the dark legacy of inherited violence and the mythologized order of authority. Against the backdrop of an isolated school still steeped in the Soviet legacy, the story centers on a curse that resurfaces every 14 years, symbolizing how coercive hierarchies and blind faith perpetuate fear and madness.
The film presents military culture, religion, and the education system as a single closed circuit, where supernatural horror functions as a metaphor for the oppressive and cyclical nature of institutional power. Adilkhan’s signature use of geometric composition, refined mise-en-scène, and dry humor—evident in his earlier works acclaimed at major international festivals—reinforces the bleak atmosphere of this world while sharply deconstructing the falsehoods and hypocrisies of authoritarian systems. (KIM Youngwoo)