There will be blood — and lots of it — in Kazakh director Aitore Zholdaskali’s solo debut, “Sicko,” a hard-boiled crime thriller about an internet scam gone wrong that plays this week at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival.
Written by Zholdaskali, Kazybek Orazbek and Aldiyar Zhaparkhanov, “Sicko” follows a cash-strapped couple who hatch a get-rich-quick scheme to pay off their mounting debts. With the help of a crooked lab assistant, they fake a terminal illness and start a crowdfunder for “lifesaving” treatment that swiftly goes viral.
Their rapid ascent to fame and fortune at first seems like a dream come true, but soon their celebrity attracts attention from Almaty’s criminal underworld, and their scheme spins dangerously out of control.
“Sicko” stars Ayan Utepbergen and Dilnaz Kurmangali as the conniving couple and is produced by Kuanysh Beisekov, Anna Kachko, Ashkat Shmanov and Almas Zhali. The film had its international premiere in the Bright Future Competition section of the Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam following a blockbuster theatrical release in Kazakhstan. Loco Films is handling world sales.
By Zholdaskali’s own admission, “Sicko” “started as a joke,” fueled by the growing number of stories he and his co-writers were encountering about internet scams in Kazakhstan. The trio conceived a bloody, black comedy that explored how far a desperate man might go to survive at the crossroads of late-stage capitalism and the attention economy, where viral fame and fortune are just a few clicks away.
