‘Mugalim’ San Sebastian Review: A Humanist Tribute To Small-Town Teachers
Zhandos, a beloved music teacher in a small Kazakh town, sees his chance to escape when a nostalgic patron unexpectedly comes along. In New Directors Competition.
A traditional, almost academic film, with everything that can imply, Mugalim follows a stretch in the life of Zhandos, a music teacher at a school in the small Kazakh city of Balkhash. He’s an exceptional pianist and feels, for the most part, that he’s wasting his life there, mostly because he earns his living playing at social events (weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and the like) where nobody pays him the slightest attention. At school, the students may be docile, but he doesn’t seem to find much personal fulfillment there either.
On top of that come other headaches: a difficult relationship with his mother; a friend and colleague who keeps pressing him to play at his uncle’s anniversary party, the uncle being an «influential person» who’s returning to town for the occasion; and the annoying school principal. All three tend to irritate him more than anything else. Meanwhile, he sometimes has to look after a neighbor with a psychiatric condition of some kind, whose mother seems overwhelmed by the difficult task of caring for him.
All these burdens pile up on his shoulders, and Zhandos comes to believe his future lies in moving to a bigger city and growing there as an artist. Mugalim follows the various circumstances he has to get through as he prepares for two events, one at school and the other social, that end up weighing on the decision he must make about his future.
It’s an extremely simple film that, while sensitive and humanist, rarely escapes a measured, conventional tone, like a «fable with a moral» you can see coming from the opening scenes. It’s clear that Zhandos isn’t quite seeing what’s happening around him, and that a series of predictable dramatic turns will force him to reconsider the place he and his work hold in this small town.
Mugalim is a tribute to those small-town teachers who, without drawing attention to their talent, and often even passing up chances to shine, leave a legacy in the students who learn from them over the years. That sincerity is the most noble and endearing quality of this unassuming Asian film, which may be too cautious even to convey its affection for its protagonist.
