The Needle

Director: Rachid Nougmanov
Screenwriters: Alexander Baranov, Bakhyt Kilibaev

Institute History

  • 1990 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Special Guests:
Director Rachid Nugmanov and lead actor ViktorTsoi

A hip, stylish thriller, The Needle was seen by over nine million people during the first three months of its release in the Soviet Union. Moro, played by Viktor Tsoi (lead singer of the popular rock group Kino), returns to Alma-Ata to collect money owed to him. While waiting out an unexpected delay, he visits his former girlfriend Dina, and discovers she has become a morphine addict. He decides to help her kick the habit and to fight the local drug mafia responsible for her condition. But Moro finds a deadly opponent in “the doctor," the mafia kingpin who is exploiting Dina.

Drenched in a cool, dreamlike sensibility, The Needle is anything but a traditional thriller. Director Rachid Nugmanov alternately burlesques. embraces and rejects the conventions of the genre. The result is an irrepressibly entertaining movie.


Following the screening, Red Wave rock n’ rollers Viktor Tsoi and Yuri Kaspayan of Kino, the most popular underground band in the U.S.S.R., will perform live

Thursday, January 25 7:00 p.m.
Egyptian Theatre

Friday, January 26 10:00 a.m.
Prospector Square Theatre

$10.00

— Forrest Ciesol

Screening Details

Credits

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