Our alum Panic Button, the debut feature by Kyrgyz filmmaker Samara Sagynbaeva, will celebrate its international premiere in the Wide Angle – Documentary Competition at the 30th Busan International Film Festival (17–26 September 2025). This film participated in the East Doc Platform 2024 (East Doc Market and Co-Production Booster) and East Silver 2025, and is co-produced by Veronika Janatková, who has recently become the programme director of the Institute of Documentary Film.
Meet Veronika at the festival
Veronika Janatková is a film producer, director and programmer, focusing on socially and politically driven narratives. She co-founded the DokuBaku IDFF, runs the production company Pandistan, and previously worked as executive director of tranzit.cz.
She will attend the festival from 18 to 21 September, promoting Panic Button while also representing IDF in her new role and is open to meetings. If you are interested, just reach her at janatkova@dokweb.net.
Where to watch Panic Button
Screenings will take place at CGV Centum City Cinemas on the following days: 18 September at 20.30, 19 September at 14.00 and 20 September at 9.00. You can find more information on the festival's website.
About the film
PANIC BUTTON (dir. Samara Sagynbaeva, prod. Samara Sagynbaeva and Veronika Janatková, 2025, Kyrgyzstan/Czech Republic)
What does free speech and free, independent media mean in the post-Soviet context? Panic Button follows the fight for public good and freedom at the cost of sacrificing the private life of one family.
The cooperation of Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan helps Russia resist Western economic sanctions. Due to the country’s strategic location, all Chinese goods bound for Central Asia and Russia must cross its borders, and it serves as a transshipment point for goods from countries with which Putin is not officially allowed to trade. Investigative journalist Ali Toktakunov, a long-time staff member of Radio Free Europe’s Kyrgyz section, helped to uncover the deeper implications. This was one of a series of cases that made Toktakunov an inconvenient figure to the corrupt regime. His wife Samara Sagynbaeva, the director of this film, was also in danger. Her diary-style documentary presents a portrait of a courageous journalist and a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and the justice system in a country where freedom of speech is definitely not a certainty.