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. (KANG Sowon)