Scorpion

Feature debut of Uzbek director Mukhlisa Azizova.

Between Tashkent, Bukhara, St. Petersburg and Marrakech, an atmospheric thriller unfolds about loyalty, loss and the fragile line between family and ideology. At its centre stands an agent of the Uzbek secret service who, during an operation, learns that the brother he believed dead is still alive — and has become part of the very terrorist organisation he is meant to fight. What begins as an action film increasingly turns into a personal story about brothers, the past and the question of how deeply childhood and origin shape a life.

Shot on original locations in Uzbekistan, Russia and Morocco. The visual language lives on strong contrasts: dusty desert light meets cold urban spaces, quiet expanse meets tight tension. The film combines classic genre elements with an unusually emotional and visual mode of storytelling.

38 shooting days, filmed in Cinemascope (1:2.39). Screenplay: Bob Underwood together with Rashid Malikov and Abduzhamil Sadikov. Production: Uzbekistan Youth Union and Uzbekkino.

After its 2018 premiere, Scorpion was released across Uzbekistan and became one of the most successful and visible genre films of its time. The film marked an important moment for contemporary Uzbek cinema and brought Mukhlisa Azizova international recognition. To this day Scorpion is considered one of the defining modern mainstream films of the country — not least because it showed that ambitious, visually rich genre cinema from Central Asia can also be seen internationally.