The Light Thief

This film is from Kyrgyzstan and it gives the viewer a bit of an overview of how the society there works and fits together. The story is quite successful in combining the personal and political planes of society.

The story relates some shenanigans about a 'little man', an electrician who, in Robin Hood style, arranges for poor people to be connected illicitly to the electricity supply, and a slick wheeler-dealer who wants to muscle in in the politics of the village. All this is related charmingly but without subtlety.  The little guy is modest and unemployed and he has a nice wife who believes in him. the wheeler-dealer, the film's baddy, sucks him into affairs that have a tragic end. We first see the baddy, wearing sunglasses, brandishing a fist-full of money to gamble on some sport involving fighting animals. He is immediately labelled as a baddy by the sunglasses and the money that he is brandishing.

This is an enjoyable film.