The Light Thief
Will Ross
HR: None

The Light Thief is a simple yet ultimately complex tale centered around the character known as Mr. Light, a man responsible for hacking utility meters in order to provide electricity for those in his village who cannot afford it. The movie begins with his arrest for doing so and the subsequent light-hearted scolding he gets from his friend Esen, the mayor of the village, who believes what Mr. Light is doing is just but must still see him fired from his job. Worried for his family’s financial future with three daughters and an unemployed husband, Mr. Light drinks heavily with his friend Mansur, a relative of a rich man named Bekzat who is intent on establishing himself as the most powerful businessman in the village. It is Bekzat who then offers Mr. Light a job building windmills to generate electricity for the town, a project reliant on funding from a delegate of Chinese investors. Appalled by the raucous belly dancing and sex acts about to be performed for the Chinese investors by the granddaughter of his neighbor, Mr. Light lashes out at Bekzat and the Chinese, fleeing from the meeting. His subsequent beating and murder, upon which the film closes, is a grim reminder of the realities faced by many villagers if they fail to comply with the directions of local muscle.

The film is an eye-opening portrayal of village life in Kyrgyzstan, whose bleak landscape is offset by colorful personalities and quirky events. Yet the grandest theme by far is one of Khans and Quams. In one of the very first scenes Esen demands a cigarette from one of his lackeys whose immediate compliance reflects the existence of pyramid hierarchies in all levels of life, even in a rural village. Bekzat is the amalgamation of the “new”, flush with city money and eager to return to his roots, aided by a posse of enforcers. The help of his relative Mansur, whose local ties help garner support for Bekzat’s plans, rewards Mansur with an endorsement for mayor by Bekzat, whose money and influence will most certainly result in Mansur’s appointment. The granddaughter of the grandmother Mr. Light helps and her sexcapades, are also indicators of clashing ideals where a girl, no doubt driven by the desire to better her life, quells her misgivings in the hope for a new path. When Mr. Light is shocked by the transformer during his drunk misadventure, fueled by his emotional rant over his inability to father a son, Mansur buries him in a folkish ritual intended to save him from the afterlife, representing the “layering” of traditions in a historically rich region. Yet at the end the influx of these modern principles and concepts did not save Mr. Light from the same brutality that one might have faced in the same village a thousand years ago.