Zabludivshiysya

"Strayed" is an effective psychological horror movie, which is finally undone by its length. It would have been a stunning short movie.

A man and his wife and son travel across the Kazakh steps, a landscape that seems truly in the middle of nowhere. The man decides to take a short cut and realises he is lost. The man and wife squabble, he goes to sleep, and awakens to find he is alone - but for a mysterious house nearby, the inhabitants of which speak in riddles, and seem to know what happened to the man's family.

They're a family themselves: a strange, demonic old man, and his exotic beauty of a daughter, clad in a snake skin dress.

Like the environment itself, the movie is sparse and unsettling, but it finally becomes a little too light on the ground. It could have been a classic short movie, but instead it's a pretty good long one.

In century XXI, we are already aware that Satan takes our poor souls if we don't behave properly. So, consider this as a refreshing reminder. I gave it 6 though for its landscape footage and a play of Andrey Merzlikin who single handedly tries to carve more sense from a story that doesn't have any. I also agree with the director that a drug consumption is a bad idea, not to mention selling drugs to the public.

It wasn't easy to get a copy of this on DVD, but it was worth the effort. I don't think I've seen a film from Kazakhstan before and I'd like to see more if they're as good as this. A man is driving with his wife and young son, apparently to meet up with someone, and loses his way in the middle of nowhere after looking for a shortcut. They seem to be going round in circles so he stops for a break, then the car won't start, he and his wife begin to argue and neither of them can get a signal on their phones because the area is so remote. After snoozing in the car he wakes to find his family gone. At a desolate house nearby he meets an old man and his daughter who appear to know all about him and are anything but surprised to see him. Ayganim Sadykova who plays the daughter looks quite magnificent. She could make a career in vampire films and that is meant as a compliment. All the actors are first rate. I've read that the director, Akan Sataev, had planned to make an English language version, to be called 'Lost', but it's hard to see how he could improve on this. Compared with most of the films I've seen recently, this is a gem.