Crickets, It’s Your Turn

A young female photographer confronts a predatory man, navigating power, desire, and control, in a visually striking, suspenseful tale where vulnerability and inner strength collide.

Merey, a 25-year-old photographer, becomes entangled with Nurlan, a man whose charm conceals a subtle menace. Despite her naturally cautious and sensitive disposition, she steps into a world far removed from her own – accepting an invitation from a virtual stranger to a remote birthday gathering with his morally corrupt friends. Through understated, carefully lit imagery and the enigmatic presence of its heroine, the film draws viewers into a quietly hypnotic space, where every glance, gesture, and shadow carries weight, and the line between curiosity and peril remains dangerously blurred.

Programme section: Cinema Current / New Female Voices / East of East
Original title: Shegirtkeler, Vash Vyhod | Year: 2024 | Duration: 105′
Country: Kazakhstan, France | Language: Kazakh, Russian | Subtitles: English
Director: Olga Korotko | Production: Etienne de Ricaud – Caracteres Productions; Olga Korotko – Seven Rivers | Cast: Inzhu Äbeu, Ayan Batyrbek, Arnur Kusaingazin, Nurlybek Maulezaripov | Screenplay: Olga Korotko | Cinematography: Aigul Nurbulatova | Editing: Ricardo Saraiva

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Locarno Film Festival, 2024 | Helsinki International Film Festival, 2024 | Mostra, São Paulo International Film Festival, 2024 | El Gouna Film Festival, 2024 | International Film Festival of India, 2024 | Glasgow Film Festival, 2025

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Born in 1988 in Uralsk, Olga Korotko made her first short films while studying with Darezhan Omirbayev. She achieved a degree of international recognition and was selected for the Asian Film Academy programme at the Busan International Film Festival. She went on to study film at the New York Film Academy (2014-2015) and took part in the Berlinale Talents Campus (2016). She subsequently obtained an MFA in Film Directing at the Zhurgenov National Academy of Fine Arts in Kazakhstan. Her first feature film, “Bad Bad Winter”, had its world premiere at ACID Cannes 2018. Her latest feature film “Crickets, It’s Your Turn” for Locarno Film Festival.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

While working in Kazakhstan, my colleague Aigul Nurbulatova and I came face to face with a harrowing case of violence – the group assault of a young woman. This incident was not isolated; it mirrors the abuse women face globally. Concomitantly, a global upheaval was caused by the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. While these incidents might seem isolated, they’re linked by a pervasive mentality: distorted Darwinism. This worldview equates success with dominance at the expense of others. I find it to be at the root of patriarchy, imperialism, environmental exploitation, and various other forms of discrimination. My film explores the collision of two worldviews: one that extols the survival of the fittest, and another propped up by Merey, in which each individual’s value is intrinsically linked with what they have to offer others.