My place on the tricorne

In a restrained, subtle and sensitive style, Ermek Shinarbaev sketches the everyday life of a 20-year-old poet and drug-user in Alma Ata, the capital of Kazachstan. The boy, beautifully acted by Adilchan Essenbulatov, spends a lot of time listening to old recordings by Maria Callas, visiting a friend or having fleeting contacts with a girl.The Place on the Tricorne is largely set indoors, in rooms that have rarely been filmed so stunningly. It is summer in the city and the young man surrenders himself to languid contemplation. But, under the thin layer of apparent indifference, a dangerous game is being played; his experiments with drugs bring him to the brink of death.The film is realistic, but the framing and mise-en-scène are too sophisticated to allow Shinarbaev's style to be called documentary. He shows a joint being rolled or a tape being put on the tape recorder patiently and in detail, while the action itself is subservient to the mood evoked. Preparing a joint is above all an expression of affection for a friend and cherishing the tape recorder is serving the art of Callas. Shinarbaev's portrait of the situation of youth in the former Soviet Union is more psychological than sociological.The Place on the Tricorne is an example of the surprising quality and originality of new young cinema in Kazachstan.