In the bleak fi lmscape of gl asnost, The N eedle s tood out a s a black sheep  of a movie. The most pl ayful and offbe at of the Sovie t films of the  period,  it contra sted sharply t o the mai nstream , which was  overwhelmed with revisioni sm of the Stal inist past  and nihilist ic social criti cism. Made in 1988 by a y oung Kazakh d irector, Ra shid Nugmanov,  fresh out of VGIK (the na tional film school), The  Needle w as a pio neering effo rt in severa l ways. Having come from a r emote, stagn ant repub lic of Kazakh stan, th e picture set off a  movement th at has come to  be known as the & quot;Kazakh  New Wave.& amp;quot; Rep resented by  such wor ks as Alexand er Baranov& #39;s and Bak hyt Kilibaye v&# 39;s The Three  (1988) and  Woman of the Day ( 1990); Kili bayev&am p;#39;s The Tic k (1990); Ba ranov&# 39;s He an d She (1990);  Abai Karpyk ov' s Little Fish  in Love (1989 ); and  Serik A prymov& #39;s The Las t Stop (1989), the Kaza kh New W ave was for t he agonizi ng Soviet fil m of the late 1 980s what the French  New Wav e was for the d usty French fil m of the l ate 1950s. The  Needle was th e movement& amp;#39;s a bo ut de s ouffle. The fil m also became a model for t he Russ ian version o f postm odernism—uninhi bited and unin formed, com pensating f or the lack o f culture , skill, an d resour ces with mis chief and w it. A youn g man named  Moro (pla yed by Vikto r Tsoi, the la te rock &a mp;#39;n& #39; roll le gend from the  St. Peter sburg band & amp;quot;Kin o") r eturns to his Asiati c hometo wn only to find hi s exgirlfriend , Dina (Ma rina Smirnova), becoming a drug addict an d himsel f becoming in volved in th e bizarre life of the  city&am p;#39;s unde rworld. In an a ttempt to save Dina,  Moro takes her away to the Aral  Sea, tur ned into  a barren desert by t he time t hey arri ve. The re Dina seems cured,  but back  in town eve rything s tarts ane w. Almost desp erate,  Moro decides to fight th e drug deal ers, led by a ho spital do ctor (play ed by anoth er rock &# 39;n&amp ;#39; roll st ar, eccentric leader of  the " Sound o f Mu&quot ; band an d the futu re star of T axi Blu es, Pyo tr Mamonov),  when one  of them stabs h im in a d eserted p ark.In the ble ak filmscap e of gla snost, The Needle  stood ou t as a  black sheep of  a movie. The most playf