Sicko is screening as part of the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival.
“New day. New opportunities.”
These words open Sicko. It is something of a tagline for Aitore Zholdaskali’s film, in that what the viewer finds as they step into the world of the two central characters—the married couple Azamat (Ayan Utepbergen) and Tansholpan (Dilnaz Kurmangali)—is a rapidly warping sense of what the word “opportunity” means.
Another keyword here could be “desperation,” as the two characters find themselves in desperate need of money. Aza, a ride-share driver, crashes his car the same day Tancho finds out that she is unexpectedly pregnant. In order to keep the baby, pay off Aza’s debts, and continue affording basic necessities, they need to find cash somewhere. Unfortunately, this comes in the form of a knee-jerk lie that Aza tells to ward off his mother (one of the multiple individuals to whom he owes money). Aza lies to his family about Tancho’s health, claiming she has stage 3 cancer. Tancho goes along with the lie, and the two concoct a social media campaign to raise funds for her (nonexistent) cancer treatment.
Sicko’s is a story that would be diabolical if it weren’t for the characters involved in the creation of the grift. And without spoiling anything, diabolical things ultimately occur. At first, however, these two come off as morally dubious characters simply in over their heads. They are not perfectly upstanding citizens, clearly. When Aza steals a cancer donation box from a bodega (which gives him the idea for the initial lie), we aren’t meant to like him. But his desperation for money is so palpable that he is a pitiable protagonist. At least, this is true for a while. Eventually, he takes a turn that is irredeemable.
Tancho, meanwhile, is a much quieter character whose complexities are harder to suss out. There is a quiet anger inside her, despite her opening the film celebrating the opportunities of a new day. The realization that such opportunities are not afforded to her or her husband eats away inside of her, and this comes to a desperate head when she discovers she is pregnant. It helps that Tancho is played by an actress giving the best performance I’ve seen at Fantasia thus far. The range of emotions Kurmangali works through while operating at a completely understated level is something else. Kurmangali is fantastic.
Obviously, the characters’ decision-making is foolish. The entire film is about waiting for the other shoe to drop. There are few conceivable ways in which they get away with their medical donation scam. When Azamat expands their social media fundraiser into an affiliation with an established (albeit shady) charity organization, it is all but a guarantee that they are in trouble. Aza, riddled with guilt, decides to get drunk before attempting to back out of the massive charity auction. This doesn’t help. Nor does his pure cowardice.
To kick off the third act, there is a brutal, prolonged sequence of robbery and assault that is arguably too prolonged, particularly given how inadequately two of the characters involved are set up earlier. In a way, it is a scene to reveal Aza’s true colors, but what is proven here about him was pretty bold and opaque prior to the sequence. It is Tancho confronting him after this sequence that really tips Aza over the edge of reason.
One could argue that the shift in his character is too abrupt and radical. His mind appears to simply snap under the pressure. But enough is seeded earlier on—a confrontation in a bathroom, most notably—that I didn’t find it entirely implausible. However, the film becomes less interesting as the actions grow more heinous. The third act is a mess of light gore and chunky punching sound effects as the scam blows up and morphs into drastic measures and outright abuse. The film ramps up, but the quiet suffering and simmering tension served the story of these characters much better, as far as I’m concerned.
The end of Sicko is bleak. The opening line about new days and opportunities becomes a cruel dramatic irony, as the script strips the characters of what little they had. How this damage is inflicted, and by whom, sours the experience, leaving one to wonder if the film’s only real goal was an expression of nihilism. The world is cruel, people are cruel, and you are probably also cruel (to some lesser or greater degree than anyone else). It is much more of a downer than one might expect from the rest of the film.
I enjoyed this quite a bit until this last act. It skidded off the rails much too sharply for my liking. Still, there is something interesting in how the film explores characters in desperate financial straits. And the two lead performers are quite excellent. Kurmangali and Utepbergen more than deserved the jury’s special mention for best performance at this year’s Fantasia Festival.
Sicko: B-
As always, thanks for reading!
—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd)
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