Review: Revenge

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

The “revenge film” has become a genre unto itself at this point. Death Wish, Rolling Thunder, John Wick, Lady Snowblood, Oldboy, any of the innumerable adaptations of Hamlet—viewers have become so intimately familiar with the basic tropes, conventions, and archetypes associated with these stories that I needn’t even bother listing them. The deceptively yet appropriately titled Revenge, on the other hand, is a different beast entirely; dispensing with the usual glorification/romanticization of retribution through bloodshed, this quietly profound Kazakh drama instead emphasizes the psychological consequences of a life dedicated to violence.

The movie departs from the traditional formula slowly, deliberately, and subtly, as it becomes increasingly obvious that its plot does not, in fact, revolve around a grieving father’s quest for vengeance, but rather his son’s pursuit of an inherited vendetta-by-proxy. At age ten, our young, innocent protagonist discovers that he was conceived, born, and raised for the sole purpose of slaying the man that murdered his half-sister more than a decade prior. This mission, of course, requires him to abandon his own goals and ambitions: “Until your task is accomplished, you will take no wife and sire no children. You will feel neither joy nor sorrow.” The character is defined by a tragic contradiction: although he is creative by nature—he has an innate talent for both writing verse and building houses—he is obliged to follow an inherently destructive path. Fortunately, this particular narrative unfolds in a world governed by cosmic forces beyond human control: the criminal he hunts cannot elude literal karmic justice in perpetuity—especially as his guilty conscience gradually erodes his sanity.

Meditating on fate, agency, and spirituality, Revenge transcends mere postmodern deconstruction; it is pure cinematic poetry—delighting the senses, stimulating the intellect, and enriching the soul in equal measure.