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Panic Button

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International Premiere, Wide Angle: Documentary Competition, 2025

Panic Button

패닉 버튼

Director Samara SAGYNBAEVA

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★Avg. rating

Score

Competitive section

Crime/ViolenceTrue StoryPolitics

Samara Sagynbaeva’s debut feature Panic Button opens on a chaotic road where cars and horses race side by side, with no lanes to separate them. It’s a neverbefore-seen scene of near-collision, yet somehow a sense of order emerges—a belief that somehow cars and horses will eventually reach their destinations. Panic Button is a political documentary set in the turbulent Kyrgyzstan. Samara’s husband, investigative journalist Ali Toktakunov, is digging into the corruption of a smuggling scandal involving a high-ranking official after receiving a phone call from a whistleblower. When the informant is murdered, his investigation forces him and his wife to exile, confined to a Czech newsroom. With a calm voiceover, Sagynbaeva recounts their over five-year struggle since 2019, living with a panic button always in her hand. But more than anything, this is a film that only Sagynbaeva could make.

Programme note by KANG Sowon

Stills5

Panic Button 1 — Dastan Zhapar

Panic Button 2 — Dastan Zhapar

Panic Button 3 — Bolsunbek Taalaibek

Panic Button 4 — Samara Sagynbaeva

Panic Button 5 — Dastan Zhapar

Screenings3

Thu, 09/18

20:3022:21

CGV Centum City 2

027Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Fri, 09/19

14:0015:26

CGV Centum City 3

107KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Sat, 09/20

09:0010:51

CGV Centum City 4

189Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue

Film details

Director: Samara SAGYNBAEVA
Country/Region: Kyrgyzstan, Czechia
Year: 2025
Length: 86min
Section: Wide Angle: Documentary Competition
Edition: Busan International Film Festival 2025, No. 30
Premiere: International Premiere
Format: DCP, Color
Selection: Competitive section
Elsewhere: Festival page Letterboxd IMDb TMDB

Director

Samara SAGYNBAEVA

Credits

Director: Samara SAGYNBAEVA
Producer: Samara SAGYNBAEVA, Veronika JANATKOVA
Cast: Ali TOKTAKUNOV
Cinematography: Samara SAGYNBAEVA, Dastan ZHAPAR, Adam OLHA, Bolsunbek TAALAIBEK
Editing: Hedvika HANSALOVÁ
Sound: Šimon HERRMANN
Music: Dzian BABAN
Production company: MediaHub, Pandistan s.r.o.

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Panic Button — Main poster

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