Insomnia (2019)

A strange phenomenon happens in Kalachi village situated in northern Kazakhstan. During a season of thaw or rain the inhabitants routinely fall into an inexplicably long sleep, which can last up to two weeks. Although the precise reason is unknown, it is generally suspected that it is the result of uranium mining directed by the Soviet Union; remnants of which remain exposed to the population. Some of them, trembling for their life and the life of their children, leave the village; but the majority stays having nowhere else to go. It's a documentary about people who live in a strange reality of this place, possessed solely by the idea of staying awake. They attempt to remedy the onset of the sleep with the use of a substance called "Insomnia" made up of; coffee, alcoholic beverages and a strong tea - everything that can help to not fall asleep. It has become known that this sleeping is not safe and can lead to hospitalization. People who risk their lives so desperately to stay in the village exist within this borderline state of humility and despair. They intend to defeat this sleeping sickness, but sometimes they languish and think about death. Death is not considered here as something terrible, but more as an expected result of a surreal existence of the reality that's so hard to understand and explain.