Dina is a 35-year-old journalist for a Kazakh state broadcaster whose childhood dreams of being an intrepid reporter have faded as she is reduced to putting out puff pieces for absurd government initiatives like Bikechess (yes, this was an actual sport proposed by the Kazakhstan Chess Federation). What little Dina has to look forward to is a listless love life with her married cameraman and the prospect of a press secretary job at a ministry if she can keep her lesbian activist sister out of trouble.


With Bikechess, which won Best International Narrative Feature at Tribeca Film Festival 2024, social realism meets bone-dry media satire as we observe Dina wrestle with journalistic integrity while reporting inanities. Its subtle balance of tone and plots describes how conformity and repression work in a country still in the sway of conservatism and its Soviet history.