| Tuesday, 07 October 2025 00:00 |
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Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival: "Backstage Madness" included into First Feature Competition
"Backstage Madness" debut of young Kyrgyz director Amanbek Azhymat
The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) is set to showcase a provocative selection of debut feature films this year. A total of 13 films will compete for the Best Debut Film Award, including 9 world premieres and 4 international premieres. All of the authors will be present in Tallinn.
A Global Selection
Ten of the films come from Europe, while Mexico, Taiwan, and Kyrgyzstan are represented from outside the continent.
Program curator Triin Tramberg describes this year’s lineup as bold and unconventional, offering perspectives that challenge audiences and push them out of their comfort zones.
“It’s exciting to see that more and more Works in Progress from our industry programme are finding their way back to the festival,” Tramberg said. “This year’s Interior is a great example — the film won the Audience Award in the Works in Progress section at last year’s Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, and now returns to PÖFF in the Debut Feature Competition.”
First Feature Competition Programme lineup:
"Backstage Madness" by Amanbek Azhymat, Kyrgyzstan, 2025
It’s never too late for an absurd and amusing Kyrgyz slapstick comedy about the incredible hardships of filmmaking.
A 70-year-young nameless Director still invents various vivid and bizarre characters on an old-fashioned typewriter. This respected veteran knows a thing or two about tenderness and aesthetics. He has heard the word ‘stop’ far too many times while preparing an arthouse festival gem. The fledgling producer orders his uncle to write something entirely different, involving all keen investors in sold-out, influential roles.
The film's fragmented structure sparks humorous anecdotes from behind the scenes. The much younger debutant, Amanbek Azhymat, playfully experiments, surprises and blends genres. He stages a choreographed musical and reverses the usual image of patriarchal Kyrgyzstan. Mighty women are given the chance to beat their violent partners with heavy objects. Ruthless gangsters are punished by the mafia of organ resellers. A corrupt, disgraced society is the target of a Hollywood-style parody, and everyone wants to open a mysterious briefcase.
Such immensely funny, action-driven fantasy is rarely seen in Central Asian films. A snappily edited, dynamic kaleidoscope of shootouts, fights, dances and kinkiness brings to mind the work of Adilkhan Yerzhanov.
Edvinas Pukšta
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