Steppenwolf, by the extremely prolific and proficient Yerzhanov, has several sources of inspiration: John Ford, samurai stories and Hermann Hesse’s novel of the same name, as well as Kazakh folklore. The film follows two characters who reluctantly team up with one goal: to find a child who has been kidnapped. The settings are desolate though beautiful, the violence brutal and the film virtuously constructed, with characters as intense as they are striking.