The Asian Film Festival Barcelona wrapped its latest edition on November 1, closing a programme of more than 100 titles from 25 countries across Asia and the Pacific, according to The Times Of Central Asia. Alongside a main focus on Indian cinema, organisers gave space to films from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The event was put together by Casa Asia, a Spanish cultural institution, and ran from October 22 to November 1.
Why it matters
The Barcelona lineup put recent Central Asian work in front of European audiences at a moment when several of these films are already travelling the festival circuit. Two of the Kazakh entries had premiered in Rotterdam and Locarno before reaching Spain, and the Kyrgyz drama Kurak arrived with a run of international prizes behind it. For a region whose cinema rarely gets wide distribution abroad, a slot in a multi-country programme is a chance to be seen beyond specialist audiences.
A Kazakh satire about debt and online sympathy
Kazakhstan's entry in the official competition was Sicko (2025), directed by Aitore Zholdaskali. The film is set in Almaty and centres on a young couple who pretend one of them is terminally ill in order to collect money online. Their scheme draws far more public attention than they bargained for. According to The Times Of Central Asia, the story takes in the strain of debt and looks at how social media can convert other people's sympathy into cash. The film had its international premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier in the year.
A second Kazakh title, Crickets, It's Your Turn, is a co-production with France directed by Olga Korotko. It follows Merey, a young photographer who is invited to a birthday party at an isolated house in the mountains outside Almaty. The gathering, attended by a group of men, turns violent as it goes on. The film first screened at Switzerland's Locarno Film Festival in 2024 within the Cineasti del Presente section, which is reserved for emerging directors. In Barcelona it appeared in the NETPAC section, named for the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, with its screening held on October 30.
A pilgrimage given up, and a patchwork of testimonies
Uzbekistan was represented by Farz (2026), directed by Sarvar Karimov. Its central character gives up savings set aside for a pilgrimage to Mecca so that he can build a house for the family of a friend who has died. The film was shown on October 27 in the festival's Special Section, having previously been part of the programme at the Kazan International Film Festival.
Kyrgyzstan's contribution was Kurak (2025), a drama by Erke Dzhumakmatova and Emil Atageldiev. The title comes from a traditional Kyrgyz form of patchwork sewing in which separate pieces of cloth are stitched together into one fabric, and the film is built on the same principle, braiding several narratives into a whole. One strand follows a woman being blackmailed by a law enforcement officer; another concerns a woman pursuing justice after her 18-year-old daughter was drugged, raped and then took her own life. Scripted scenes are mixed with testimony given by women speaking about their own experiences.
By the time Kurak reached Barcelona it had collected a number of awards abroad. In 2025 it took two prizes at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. The following year it was named Best Film at the Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh, and at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas in France it received the international jury's Grand Prix as well as honours from the critics' jury and a high school jury.
The film's record at home has been different. The Times Of Central Asia has previously reported that Kurak was refused a distribution certificate in Kyrgyzstan and did not appear at the Bishkek International Film Festival, even though the organisers had initially intended to include it. That contrast — international recognition alongside domestic barriers — has followed the film through its festival run.
What to watch
The Barcelona edition has ended, but the titles it showed are likely to keep circulating on the festival circuit, and Kurak's reception in Kyrgyzstan remains the story to follow as its overseas profile grows.
