Cadet

Forum 2025

Resolutely, Alina and her son Serik are shown round the premises of the “best military school” in Kazakhstan by its headmaster. Alina will teach history here, of all places, and Serik will attend the school as a cadet. However, the discipline prescribed doesn’t work for the shy boy, with his girly hairstyle making him the target of malice and bullying, despite having the right connections – as Serik’s biological father is a key figure behind all the goings-on as a protector. It happens as it happens in (post-)horror: first one pupil dies, then the next. Murder? Suicide? And what role do the mothers play? Obfuscation, threats, harassment – an investigator from a municipal authority is tasked with finding out. The spiritus sovieticus also oozes out of every nook and cranny of this great film, the latest from Kazakh genre-auteur wunderkind Adilkhan Yerzhanov. In Cadet, this spirit seeps out as an education-of-monsters via architecture, ritual and rhetoric, physical violence and psycho-horror, as the cadaver’s stench from the dungeons of repressed history into the present of evil. Yerzhanov’s subtle and deliberately naïve question isn’t how evil is possible – but why good is possible.

by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Director, Screenplay)
with Anna Starchenko, Serik Sharipov, Ratmir Yusupzhanov, Alexey Shemes Kazakhstan 2024 Kazakh, Russian 126' Colour & Black/White European premiere

With

Anna Starchenko
Serik Sharipov
Ratmir Yusupzhanov
Alexey Shemes

Crew

Director	Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Screenplay	Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Cinematography	Yerkinbek Pturaliyev
Editing	Arif Tleuzhanov
Music	Sandro di Stefano
Sound Design	Zurab Kurmanbayev
Production Design	Yermek Utegenov
Casting	Leila Sadykova
Producer	Damir Yedilov
Executive Producers	Akbota Kaisenova, Bibizhama Bekenova, Yerlan Bukharbayev

Produced by

Tiger Films

Photos

Adilkhan Yerzhanov

Adilkhan Yerzhanov was born in Kazakhstan in 1982. He studied filmmaking at the Kazakhstan National Academy of Arts and his films have twice been selected by the Cannes Film Festival as well as the Venice International Film Festival. His film The Owners received awards at many international film festivals and was included in the 100 Best Asian Films catalogue published by the Busan International Film Festival in 2015.

Filmography (selection)

2011 Rieltor (Realtors) 2013 Stroiteli (Constructors) 2014 Ukili kamshat (The Owners) 2015 Istorija kazahskogo kinematografa (The Story of Kazakh Cinema: Underground of Kazakhfilm) 2016 Chuma v aule Karatas (The Plague at the Karatas Village) 2018 Nochnoj bog (Night God) · Laskovoe bezrazlichie mira (The Gentle Indifference of the World) 2019 Boj Atbaja (Atbai’s Fight) · Chyorniy, chyorniy chelovek (A Dark, Dark Man) 2020 Zheltaja koshka (Yellow Cat) 2021 Onbagandar (Herd Immunity) 2022 Ulbolsyn · Shturm (Assault) · Goliaf (Goliath) · Obuchenie Ademoki (Ademoka’s Education) 2024 Nosorog (Steppenwolf) · Cadet

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025