Steppenwolf

Source: Blue Finch Films

‘Steppenwolf’

Arrow Films has acquired Kazakh thriller Steppenwolf for the US, UK and Canada from UK-based Blue Finch Films, ahead of its North American premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival.

The feature was written and directed by Kazakhstan’s Adilkhan Yerzhanov, whose credits include The Owners and The Gentle Indifference Of The World, which played at Cannes in 2014 and 2018 respectively.

His latest follows a mother, played by Anna Starchenko, who is searching for her missing son in a small town consumed by riots and violence. In an act of desperation, she hires a dubious ex-detective, played by Berik Aitzhanov, who employs sadistic methods in an effort to track down her boy.

The film had its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) earlier this year and won the top Golden Raven award at Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. It will screen at Fantasia in Montreal on Saturday (July 27).

UK-based distributor Arrow Films has yet to set a release date but it is understood to be lined up for 2025.

Steppenwolf had previously been acquired Germany (Plaion Pictures), France (Extralucid Films), Poland (Media4Fun) and Latin America (Encripta).

Producers are Aliya Mendygozhina, Alexander Rodnyansky and Olga Khlasheva. Rodnyansky is known as the producer of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, which was nominated for best foreign language film in 2015, as well as Cannes 2019 award-winner Beanpole and upcoming feature Of Dogs Of Men, which will screen in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival.

Recent acquisitions by Arrow Films include Mary Dauterman’s thriller-comedy Booger and Francis Galluppi’s The Last Stop In Yuma County.

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