The Needle () is a 1988 Soviet thriller film. It stars rock musicians Viktor Tsoi (Kino) and Pyotr Mamonov (Zvuki Mu). The film premiered on 16 September 1988 in Almaty and in February 1989 in Moscow. The Needle is known for being one of the first Kazakh new wave films, and was one of the most watched films in the Soviet Union in 1989. Plot An enigmatic drifter known as Moro arrives in Alma-Ata to extract a debt from a lowly criminal known as Spartak. He tracks down his ex-girlfriend, Dina, who lets him stay in her apartment. Meeting his debtor in a cafe called "Parliament", Moro learns that Spartak also owes money to a lot of other people. Later, he finds out that Dina's employer, the surgeon Artur, is supplying her with drugs and using her apartment to store morphine. In an attempt to help Dina, Moro takes her away to the Aral Sea, which they had visited together years before. The sea is by this time a barren wasteland. Moro conceals the ampules of morphine to which Dina is addicted, and after a few weeks in withdrawal she appears to be cured, but her habit returns when they return to the city. Almost desperate, Moro confronts the drug dealers, sees Spartak go into a state of hysteria, and turns Artur's people against him. The film ends as Moro is stabbed by one of Artur's thugs in a snowy street as he walks home to Dina. The ending is ambiguous, with Moro's ultimate fate unknown. Main cast Viktor Tsoi as Moro Marina Smirnova as Dina Aleksandr Bashirov as Spartak Pyotr Mamonov as Artur Yusupovich Archimedes Iskakov as Archimedes Production The film was commissioned by state-backed studio Kazakhfilm, following the political and social reforms of Perestroika. Nugmanov agreed to direct the film on the condition that he could choose the cast and edit the script at his will. Nugamov cast close friend Viktor Tsoi as the protagonist Moro, a character they had both been developing over their studies at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. Tsoi had previously played himself in the epilogue of 1987 crime film Assa. On directing The Needle, Nugamov said: Principal photography took place across the Kazakh SSR. The ship that Moro and Dina find in the Aral Sea is a research vessel named Гидролог, or Hydrolog. Tsoi was apparently dissatisfied with the rudeness of