Screen can reveal the first trailer for Herd Immunity, the latest feature from Kazakh director Adilkhan Yerzhanov which will debut in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival this Friday (November 19).

The film is a comedy about a corrupt police officer in a remote Kazakh village, where most of Yerzhanov’s films are set. The officer is loved by the local criminals; but finds his lifestyle under threat when a committee arrives from the city to conduct an audit due to the pandemic.

The film is produced by Kazakh company Short Brothers, with Guillaume de Seille handling sales through his French firm Arizona Productions.

Herd Immunity (Onbagandar in Kazakh) shot in 2021; it is the third feature the prolific Yerzhanov has made in the past year, after Yellow Cat, which premiered in Horizons at Venice 2020; and Ulbolsyn, which debuted at Black Nights last year.

He has appeared in the Cannes official selection twice before, with The Owners as a special screening in 2014, and The Gentle Indifference Of The World in Un Certain Regard in 2018. Both titles went on to secure nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA); Yerzhanov then won the directing award at APSA for A Dark, Dark Man in 2019.

Tallinn Black Nights 2021 began on November 12, and runs until November 28.

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