Movie Review: Myn Bala - Warrior of the Steppe, a 2012 movie from Kazakhstan!

Kazakhstan became a funny famous country due the jokes of the comedy movie "Borat", but that was made by Hollywood with a British actor who never been in Kazakhstan. In 2012 a local movie by the name Myn Bala gave the worldwide audience a serious tune on Kazakhstan with a breath taking Enviroment, strong cinema photography, and a plot with same spirit as Robin Hood.

story:

It all began a very long time ago, when the Kazakh people were in the middle of war, and ruled by the ruthless Dzungar clan. Sartai a young boy watch his parents get executed at his very own eyes, and he manage to escape with his friends Taimas and Khoran. Sartai is now 20 years old (Asylkhan Tolipov) and practice combat skills with the other survivors including Khoran (Kuralai Anabekova). They swore to fight the Dzungar clan and make Kazakhstan a free country. Battle after battle, and after they manage rescue several villages from Dzungar, Sartai become famous as the warrior of the Steppe. However his fame anger his friend Taimas (Ayan Utepbergen) and through his jealousy he betray Sartai to become the new leader of his gang.

Overall:

Although the movie has an intriguing story and the director Akan Satayev has an excellent eye of landscape photography, also it's the first Kazakhstan movie to become worldwide famous, Myn Bala still cannot escape it's weak point. The problem with the movie is that it's not strong enough to over 2 hours long. The special effect and action stunt is on the 80s level, and the acting is kinda weak too, for example the actors and actresses has same facial expressions no matter if they are inlove or sad or angry, which means the cast is too weak to hold on to two hours. If the movie was only 1 hours and 30 minutes then it could have been a forever classic, but due to the long time length and weak acting and weak film making the movie will feel like a 2012 movie that soon will be forgotten soon. But that doesn't make it a bad movie. The movie still has some good moments and one scene was very strong, when they attacked a fortress with explosions, that did impress a lot. Plus the movie is from Kazakhstan so it's nice to see a new Asian country on the worldwide marketing.

I reward the movie 6/10, it's still a good movie from Kazakhstan even though it's also weak.