• Harmony Lessons

    Harmony Lessons (2013)

  • Harmony Lessons

    Harmony Lessons (2013)

  • Harmony Lessons

    Harmony Lessons (2013)

  • Harmony Lessons

    Harmony Lessons (2013)

Harmony Lessons

A visually striking yet vehemently hostile 2013 Darwinian drama set within a rural Kazakh school, Emire Baigazin's Harmony Lessons is an austere and haunting tale of childhood hierarchy. Violence is an integral part of 13-year old Aslan’s (Timur Aidarbekov) life, with his main tormentor Bolat (Alsna Anarbayev) a fellow student whose extortion ring has seized control of the school. Plagued by a compulsion toward insect torture and personal cleanliness, Aslan is forced into a corner with violence the only conceivable way out. Harmony Lessons' gratuitous use of torture is distressing, yet illuminates a far more disturbing social problem.