Zhaza

In a small town, a corrupt major learns that his daughter has been raped by the chief of police.

A young woman, Assel, visits her estranged father, a military veteran Aslan, who lives in another city. She doesn’t know that her dad is a corrupt police officer serving as a small cog in the organised-crime machine that controls the city. When his bosses request to bring them “fresh girls”, Aslan orders his subordinate policemen to do this. He can’t imagine that Assel will be targeted as one of the victims. She is caught on the street and later raped. After hearing about this, Aslan goes on a warpath for revenge. And no one can stop him, except one person...

Darkhan Tulegenov is a director to watch closely. He belongs to a new generation of Kazakh independent filmmakers who, defying censorship, are determined to make radical films that convey a powerful message.

“Zhaza” is a hard-hitting, action-packed thriller that depicts a post-Soviet society in full decline, where the only guiding principle is to do whatever it takes to survive.