‘Born to be wild’ goes the famous song by 60s band Steppenwolf, a title that rather sums up the spirit of this stylish, hyper-violent revenge drama from Kazakhstan. Set in a bleak landscape where civil war rages, Anna Starchenko plays Tamara, a mute woman searching for her young son who has been kidnapped by child-organ traffickers. Out of desperation, she hires ‘The Steppenwolf’ (Berik Aitzhanov), a merciless enforcer used by the police to elicit confessions from suspects. Together, they are the strangest of couples, trawling through this world in search of clues to retrieve her boy and, in the case of The Steppenwolf, dispatching enemies with ruthless efficiency.

Inspired by the trappings of the western, notably John Ford’s evergreen The Searchers, Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s film is startling to look at, right from the first frame with the shot of one luckless fellow, his head bagged and a cigarette wedged between his lips. The violence will be too much for some, especially the scene where our anti-hero takes a hammer to the fingers of one criminal. And despite a charged atmosphere, aided by Galymzhan Moldanazar’s gnarly electronic score, the excessive bloodshed lessens the overall impact. But as B-movies go, this still rattles cages. 

Steppenwolf screened as part of Edinburgh International Film Festival.