Steppenwolf review: Fantasia Film Festival 2024

Steppenwolf played at Fantasia International Film Festival 2024

In all my years of working in movie stores and writing about film, I don’t think I’ve even had the pleasure of reviewing a film from Kazakhstan. Not only is Steppenwolf a super film, but it’s also one of the best action revenge films in recent years. Folks, if you want a brutal and unforgiving experience then get ready for this one.

The film opens during a bloody riot and uprising. The land is overcome with lawlessness and hopelessness. There’s no order, and chaos rules a vast Mad Max-like apocalyptic wasteland.

A woman called Tamara stumbles into a police station in the middle of a bloody shoot-out. Stammering her sentences like a child in shock, she walks into a room where an ex-detective turned interrogator is trapped. She agrees to help him if he agrees to help find her missing son. She also promises a handsome payout if the child is located safely.

The interrogator known as Brajyuk agrees to help Tamara but not out of the goodness of his heart. There is no goodness in his heart or no goodness in this man. Before becoming the barbaric animal he is now, his job was to kidnap and torture people.

So, when you find out a little backstory – you’ll quickly learn that Brajyuk is not a man you want to mess with. And guess what? The person who kidnapped Tamara’s kid is the same person who burnt his entire family to death. Things just got personal.

This unlikely duo set out on a mission to rescue the little boy from a crime lord and it is far from a pretty sight. When I mention that Brajyuk is unsympathetic, I mean it. He is selfish, abusive and most of all, psychopathic. He knows how his story is going to end but before it does, nearly every person he meets will die at his hands. Bloody justice must be served.

Steppenwolf is beautifully brutal. This is a frightening and harrowing watch with one of the meanest, unforgiving protagonists you could hope for in a revenge movie. The dialogue is sparse but violence and death are in almost every scene. It is ultra-violent without being too graphic.

Steppenwolf is a must-see for fans of ultra-violent, vicious and unforgiving revenge films. I would like to take this moment to welcome Kazakhstan to cinematic revenge playing field. I’ll look forward to seeing more from this director.

Plot (Fantasia)

Brajyuk (Berik Aitzhanov, GOLIATH, THE ASSAULT) was once a detective. Today, he’s an interrogator. Bone-breaker. Mercenary. Above all, Brajyuk is a psychopath. We meet him during an eruption of horrific bloodshed between warring factions at a police station. His path soon crosses with that of a woman so consumed by trauma that she can now barely speak. Her name is Tamara (Anna Starchenko, NARTAI) and she’s desperately searching for her young son, Timka, gone missing in an apocalyptic Kazakh landscape consumed by riots and ultraviolence. Brajyuk has no sympathy for her, but an offer of payment brings him dispassionately onside. Together, they embark on a journey of death and tears.

Arrow Video have picked up Steppenwolf for release so I will make sure to keep you all up to date with release information