Khadak

Before Khadak takes a sharp left turn into abstract, distinctly bizarre territory, the film is a sporadically compelling but far-too-slow look at the attempts of a small Mongolian sheep herding family to cope after being forced out of their home. Filmmakers Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth infuse Khadak with a thoroughly memorable sense of style, punctuating the proceedings with a variety of starkly photographed shots. And for a while, it’s kind of interesting; Brosens and Woodworth’s complete confidence in their material results in an unmistakable feeling of authenticity (although one can’t help but wish that the two would’ve included something – anything – to draw the viewer in). But at a certain point, the movie firmly drops any pretense of realism and adopts a vibe of utter strangeness; it’s an exceedingly jarring shift in tone that literally comes out of nowhere, given the almost documentary-esque opening half hour. The avant-garde nature of the movie’s latter half is kind of intriguing but mostly interminable, and there’s simply no denying that Khadak generally feels like a film school experiment gone horribly wrong.

*1/2 out of ****