1988 · drama · crime · cult
The Needle
Directed by Rashid Nugmanov1h 16m1988
Moro 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.
Our read: The Needle (1988) reads as a sombre, steady, inventive drama · crime · cult entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Sombre, steady, measured drama / crime, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold.
- sombre
- intense
- inventive
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How The Needle feels to watch.
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“You want a raw late-Soviet story of addiction, rock, and quiet defiance.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if explicit drug use scenes or slow 80s Eastern European pacing drag.
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