Typing Suicide in the Pool: A Kyrgyz B-Movie Fantasy — “Backstage Madness (2025)”

The world of cinema has always been stretched between two poles: artistic originality and commercial necessity. With his debut feature film Backstage Madness (2025), Amanbek Azhymat transports this ancient conflict from a dusty yet magical corner of Kyrgyzstan all the way to the main stage of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF).

Looking back from 2026, this low-budget but huge-spirited film from 2025 remains etched in memory as one of independent cinema’s most sincere acts of rebellion against the “dictatorship of the algorithm.”

The Anatomy of the Film: A Fairground Inside a Writer’s Mind

A nameless 70-year-old screenwriter sits at his typewriter dreaming of slow cinema and art-house masterpieces when his young producer nephew bursts through the door with a kick. The demand is crystal clear: “We need fights, bedroom scenes, action—something that will convince the investors.”

At that moment the film breaks away from ordinary drama and plunges into absurd fantasy. With every keystroke from the old writer’s typewriter, we are pulled into cheap B-movie aesthetics, hired killers, and surreal sequences.

Why You Should Watch It

• Meta-Narrative: The film offers a layered “film-within-a-film” structure in which cinema laughs at itself and at the industry that sustains it.
• The Rise of Kyrgyz Cinema: Backed by the legacy of the Soviet era, Kyrgyz directors are now able to blend local stories with universal humour.
• Micro-Budget Miracle: With a mere $80,000 budget, it proves that creativity is a far more powerful currency than money.

Critic’s Note: A Look from the Perspective of 2026

Backstage Madness is not just a film; it is a mirror reminding us how fragile creative autonomy has become in an age when content production has become industrialised. Rather than drowning the audience in melancholy, Azhymat uses slapstick comedy to make them laugh at the absurdity.

The film’s international visibility at Tallinn also serves as a benchmark for the rising trend of “peripheral cinema” in 2026. Physical comedy transcends language barriers, turning Kyrgyzstan’s troubles into a global concern.

“If you have ever once sacrificed your creative vision to market demands, every single clack of that typewriter in this film will echo in your heart.”