Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov's film “Assault” won the grand jury award at the 38th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF), Kazakhfilm press service reports. The jury of the largest film festival in Southern California awarded the film for Best Narrative Feature.
The film tells the story of an armed gang holding an elementary school hostage in a remote fictional village of Karatas in Kazakhstan. Before the special forces could arrive from the city, the math teacher, Tazshi, forms his own rescue team consisting of his ex-wife, a town police officer, the principal, an alcoholic war veteran, and local mobsters. Variety reviewer Jessica Kiang described it as "a deconstructed, deadpan thriller of coal-black comedy and ice-white landscapes"
This is not the first award in the movie's festival run. Assault received the Grand Prix and Critics’ Prize at the second Reims International Thriller Film Festival held in April.