Films

In Almaty, Azamat and Tansholpan are broke and buried in debt. When the debt collectors begin closing in, the couple decide to fake a terminal illness and launch a crowdfunding campaign to pay for a treatment that, obviously, does not exist. With the help of a corrupt laboratory assistant, the lie goes viral and, for a while, seems to work better than any honest job. But fame attracts the attention of Almaty’s criminal underworld, and the scam quickly spirals out of control. Directed by Aitore Zholdaskali, Sicko is a hard, bloody and darkly comic social thriller about greed, social media and late capitalism. Influenced by South Korean horror, the film also explores gender relations and corruption in Kazakh society. After passing through state censorship, it became a social phenomenon and box-office hit in Kazakhstan, premiering in IFFR’s Bright Future section.