The Light Thief

On the steppe in Kyrgyzstan, a simple electrician affectionately known as Mr. Light (director/cowriter Aktan Arym Kubat) finds himself caught in a difficult position when an ambitious politician embraces his dream of generating wind energy for his tiny, impoverished town. Mr. Light is modest and altruistic through and through, but his unlikely partner seems motivated more by greed than hopes of community development. In the meantime, Mr. Light helps out the best he can, tampering with the meters of those too poor to pay for electricity, which raises the ire of the authorities. He also strains to keep his wife—a tough, smart woman frustrated by her husband’s naïveté—happy. The Light Thief elegantly dramatizes the complex challenges of a developing economy with its heartfelt story about the unglamorous yet very real struggles of life in post-Soviet Central Asia. “Kabut is irresistible. His Mr. Light may be an innocent in terms of the so-called civilized world but his intuitive perspicacity, mix of humility and pride, and unabashed desire for his beautiful neighbor make him complex and human” (Natasha Senjanovic, Hollywood Reporter).