Schizo (2004) User Reviews

Stark and gritty.

[techboardhr · 7/10 · 16 April 2006]

Most of the landscape is bleak and desolate which means the acting and story must carry the film, they do. This movie is far removed from the typical big budget cotton candy dumbed-down Hollywood syrup.

I would categorize it as basically a humanistic survival story set in the rural outback. The emotions are as sparse as the back drop and yet still quite beguiling.

Some of the fights seemed a little unrealistic, however, it does not detract too much from the movie's overall believable tone. Also it was not a predicable film. At times you feel that Schizo may be mentally impaired, by his lack of communication, yet his demeanor is fitting to his environment and circumstances.

Good Kazakh Flick

[jherr · 8/10 · 3 February 2007]

If you are sitting at home and thinking: "you know, I would like to see a film dealing with life in present day Kazakhstan. Something with a fairly clean, simple plot, good direction, nice visuals, and a storyline that takes its time", then I would highly recommend this film.

It should be noted that this is a slow film. There is nothing really that happens in the film that is surprising if you are somewhat aware of the living conditions in central asia. I would say that the film's best feature is that is seems to do a pretty good job of giving the viewer an idea of what life is like in rural Kazakhstan.

Maturing Kid

[jeeap · 7/10 · 11 June 2018]

The best thing you can do in a brutal environment is outperform bad guys. That's exactly what the main character is doing. There's a slight hint though that he won't take place of his defeated enemies. He has some values in him to prevent that to happen.

A Fresh Take on the Poor Kid Trying to do the Right Thing

[noralee · 1 April 2005]

"Schizo (Shiza)" is a wonderful demonstration of how new world cinema can take old stories that we've seen in the movies before and make them fresh in a new context.

We've all seen the movie about the poor, naive kid in way over his head with the local gangsters, who provide the only jobs in the neighborhood, then he starts feeling sorry for his boss's victims and tries to do the right thing for the survivors.

Debut director and co-writer Gulshat Omarova takes a unique approach through several elements.

First is the striking views of Kazakhstan in what has to be some of the bleakest locales of economic hopelessness and anarchy since the "Mad Max" movies, and this isn't post-apocalyptic science fiction.

Second is the striking casting of first-time or amateur actors with simply marvelous faces and on screen presence, particularly the young man playing the titularly nicknamed character. I'm sure U.S. audiences are missing some of the inter-ethnic tensions that can only be guessed as the actors have a variety of racial features, from Russian to Central and East Asian to Middle Eastern, let alone their accents or use of language.

Also unique is how the story has the tenderness of Truffaut's "The Four Hundred Blows" in seeing how an out of kilter kid gets treated harshly in this environment, from lousy schools to incompetent doctors, and has to grow up too fast.

While the film is excellent at demonstrating how raw masculinity and cruelty thrives in this brutal atmosphere, it is beautiful at showing the attraction of domesticity as women have appeal beyond (though of course including) sex. It manages to make unlikely relationships touching and credible as humans strive to create family out of whatever fractured groupings are available to them. It reinvents the love story.

A phenomenal piece of work.

[filmfan213 · 10/10 · 28 February 2005]

Perhaps one of the most overlooked and underrated Films at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Schizo is an excellent film from start to finish. Set in the rarely filmed former Soviet Satellite country of Kazakhstan, the film focuses on a 15-year-old street hustler named Schizo who works for his mother's rather unscrupulous boyfriend as a recruiter of young boxers for illegal match fights for gamblers. When one of Schizo's boxing recruits dies in the ring, the ailing man asks Schizo to deliver his share of the prize money to his 28-year-old girlfriend and young son. Schizo agrees to carry out the man's last request but after finding the woman and child living in a tiny shack in the middle of nowhere, he decides to adopt the family as his own and quickly falls in love with the woman.

Director Guka Omarova's decision to cast Olzhas Nusuppaev, a real-life orphan in the lead roll of Schizo truly adds a sense of realism to this great film. I strongly recommend seeing this film; it is a phenomenal piece of work.

So few words, such beauty, such strength

[[e-mail] · 9/10 · 24 April 2005]

Schizophrenic Mustafa (Schizo) is not. His classmates have given him that nickname because they think he is crazy. And a doctor is treating him with pills. There's nothing crazy about him. He's not even as slow as he is made out to be. He is non-verbal, yes. But those eyes see it all. He lives in a country where men have no jobs, the land has no produce, a desolate place. He lives with an uncle who involves him in recruiting men to fight bare-knuckled, even to the death, in an illegal boxing racket. He is taken in by a young widow who starts as his substitute mother. But they learn to love each other and come to an intimacy that is presented to us beautifully. We don't even think of incest. Fine acting. We get to know them so well. Great direction and camera work. Put it on your list of ones to see.

a good export from Kazakhstan

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 8 November 2005]

The title refers to young Mustafa (Oldzhas Nusupbayev), who is believed to be schizophrenic by everyone. In reality, he is just different. Still, no one believes that he could ever go on to do greater things. But Mustafa has some surprises in store for them.

"Shiza" (called "Schizo" in English) is a truly heartwarming flick from Kazakhstan. In a way, I could sort of relate to Mustafa: assumed to be weird by everyone. This may be the only Kazakh movie that I've ever seen, but it certainly is great. Aside from the plot, the scenery is beyond impressive. This is truly one movie that makes you want more. I certainly hope that the people behind this movie produce more movies.

Brilliance out of Kahzikstan

[gpadillo · 9/10 · 14 April 2007]

Schizo. This appears to be the first major picture out of Kahzikstan and what an impressive, stunning debut of a film. Schizo is the story of a 15 year old boy everyone thinks is schizophrenic. He's kicked out of school for fighting, but instantly the viewer will recognize this young man as the sanest, most responsible person in the film. He's hired by his mother's boyfriend to recruit fighters for illegal bare-knuckle fights. Shortly into his new career, a young dying fighter asks the boy to bring his winnings to his girlfriend and his son. Immediately Schizo develops a sense of responsibility for this little family and does whatever he can to ensure their well being. Things turn nasty, but a pervading sense of hope seems to light Schizo's eyes and one never questions his judgment and he stays true to some code of honor that no one else seems to have in this tale. It's a powerful, beautiful story with a sensational film debut from Oldzhas Nusupbayev. Throughout the film I kept wondering "where did they FIND this kid?" - and I was startled to learn he had never before acted, had no family and was actually growing up in an orphanage and discovered there. His performance is the lynchpin on which the entire film is hinged. Writer/Director Guka Omarova's location scenes are visually strong, conveying a sort of resigned hopelessness and presenting a post-Soviet Kahzikstan landscape that feels like a world that had been stripmined for all its worth and then merely abandoned. Equally as impressive as this landscape are the wildly diverse and unforgettable faces of the multi-ethnic populations of this country. Olga Landina plays the love interest and she is like a young, vibrant, Eastern bloc Rebecca Demornay. Hot. Schizo is a real find!

Picaresque gem of a boy living by his wits

[Chris Knipp · 1 April 2005]

"Schizo" is the picaresque tale of a fifteen-year-old boy branded as nuts, who gives up on his mom and school and runs with his mom's boyfriend, a petty tough guy and crooked fight promoter. At school he got the nickname, "Shiza," but he turns out to be smart, tough, and humane – a powerful combination at any age. His real name is Mustapha (the slinky, smiling young actor's called Oldzhas Nusupbayev, all these people are Kazaks and the film is in Russian), and he has more of the criminal psychopath in him – there are signs that his sense of right and wrong is a bit loose – but whatever roughness he has is mitigated by the kindness he shows when a guy he's helped recruit to fight gets killed and Schizo takes on the dead fighter's girlfriend and her little boy as his responsibility and his new family.

This is the best rough crime adventure storytelling on film since the Chinese "Blind Shaft". The boy is lean and dark and graceful and his face has a Slavic Mogul beauty, and it's impassive till he shows his big sudden smile. This is pure narrative without introspection, and the fun of it, what makes it fresh and newly minted from shot to shot, is that we don't know what Mustapha has inside, so everything that happens – his determination, stamina, and spirit, his willingness to take on poses like a pair of dark glasses and a cigarette dangling from the corner of the mouth in a mirror (a bit like Belmondo mimicking Bogie in Godard's "Breathless") – is all a gift. Like a true picaresque anti-hero Mustapha is a social reject, but capable of blending in anywhere and slipping by without lasting damage.

In the opening scene Mustapha's mom takes him to a doctor, a boorish chap all done up in stiff whites like a sous-chef. It seems she's bought the idea that her son's defective, because she's going to save up for him to get treatment. But her boyfriend Sakura (Eduard Tabishev) sees that he can be a harmless helper in his fight schemes if he'll keep silent and help lure in fall guys. Schizo proves to be more than that, a cocky kid with a certain panache, a sliding swagger of a walk, an ability to swill down vodka with grown men. But his independent spirit soon leads him away from his mom's boyfriend and out on his own.

The events that follow shouldn't be revealed, but they're both natural and surprising, and it's a deft adventure that leads toward wisdom and happiness.

The people are intensified because of their toughness and the desolate harsh beauty of the scenery. Zinka (Olga Landina), the girl Schizo adopts, is a cross between Mia Farrow and Sissy Spacek. Her exchanges with Schizo are priceless, largely because of his combination of naivete and boldness. The rough men around the fight scene aren't caricatures; they're just tough and vivid. One event follows hard upon another and there's an edge of danger and menace but also a growing sense that this Mustapha fellow is both an operator and a sweetie-pie. Such a combination might seem corny sometimes, but it works fine here. The writing is economical (imagine early Hemingway with a Kazhakistan accent), the direction and editing are spare and energetic. The narrative delivers its little surprises with raw poetry, like a good short story. This first film is a little gem.

Seeking and Finding Meaning in the Midst of Bleakness

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 15 September 2005]

SCHIZO is a stunning cinematic achievement from Kazakhstan courtesy of Gulshat Omarova who directed and co-wrote with Sergei Bodrov this story of survival in the bleak landscape of poverty in that part of the world about which we know little.

Mustafa (nicknamed Schizo by his schoolmates who find his behavior crazy) lives with mother and her boyfriend Sakura (Eduard Tabishev), a worldly guy who arranges illegal, brutal boxing matches with unemployed desperate men who are placed in a ring with 'professionals'. Schizo's mother seeks help for Schizo from a kindly doctor (who she pays in eggs and sour cream of her own making): the doctor (Viktor Sukhorukov) prescribes pills for Schizo's behavior and headache and recommends expensive test in the nearby city.

Sakura engages Schizo to ferret out 'victims' for the illegal games, offering companionship and some money to the lonely kid. At one fight a young man Ali is beaten to death and as he dies he makes Schizo promise to give his 'winning money' to his girl Zinka (Olga Landina) and his son. Schizo keeps his word and delivers the money to Zinka who lives below the poverty level in a shack outside of the tiny town. Schizo makes friends with Zinka's young son, and ultimately is forced to tell Zinka that Ali is dead. Furious at first, Zinka gradually warms to Schizo as he repeatedly brings her little gifts he buys with the money from his work with Sakura. The three finally form a semblance of family, a life Schizo has never known.

Sakura's dealings with the illegal boxing come to disaster when Schizo's alcoholic uncle, bribed to fight, actually wins, destroying the crime ring. Sakura convinces Schizo to rob a little store so that he can pay back the irate crime leaders, but as soon as the robbery is successful, Sakura denies Schizo his rightful 50%, tries to flee, but Schizo shoots the escaping Sakura, leaving Schizo now a killer but with all the stolen money as his own. How Schizo deals with this mixture of misfortune and luck and the consequences of his behavior forms the ending to this little story.

The acting is extraordinary, especially on the part of novice Oldzhas Nusupbayev as Schizo, a young actor given little dialogue but who is able to tell legions of information with his eyes. The camera work and musical scoring are as sensitively minimal and effective as is the story: the images of poverty and deserted structures left behind by the fall of the Soviet Union are mesmerizing. Highly Recommended. In Russian with English subtitles. Grady Harp

Sad, depressing realities of Kazakhstan.

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 10/10 · 6 August 2007]

There is something magical in the films from Central Asian republics that serious viewers cannot disassociate themselves from them.No one knows for sure whether it has got something to do with folklore or customs or the fact that they have freed themselves from Soviet union.Whatever might be the reason it is sure that some of the films from these reasons are made by enterprising film makers who have always made nice films despite having been burdened with lack of funds.Schizo is one such film made by Guka Omarova.In the past she has been assistant to the great Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov.She has made good use of the current day political situation in Kazakhstan to make an entertaining film by using some rather common dramatic elements.Schizo functions as a double edged sword as not only it entertains but always leaves a serious message on viewers' minds.The film is a watchable treat thanks to the title character who proves in the end that the week and meek are not to be taken for granted.