Boasting an unemployment rate below 5%, you could say that Almaty is a paradise for young people looking for stable jobs. Unless, of course, you’re an opportunistic slacker like Tansholpan, who collects debts like Pokémon cards. But rather than come up with a repayment plan with his bank, he decides to drag Azamat, his pregnant [...]

Aslan is a sturdy cop who spends his days in a provincial backwater, lost in the endless Kazakh steppe. He’s surrounded by boorishness, toxic masculinity, and corruption that drags his spirit down. And yet Aslan carries on, the bags under his eyes growing heavier by the day. When his daughter is picked up off the [...]