The Balkan section to include two Bulgarian films for the first time – Ivaylo Hristov’s Losers and Kamen Kalev’s Tête Baissée
After having been presented for the first time at Sofia Meetings, Losers (2015) was selected for the 37th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Golden St. George Grand Prize. At the 33rd Golden Rose Bulgarian feature film festival, the film won the Best Feature Film grand prize. Losers has been appreciated by audiences, critics and journalists. Actress Elena Telbis won the Best Actress Award for her role in the film. “The story takes place in Bulgaria. It’s about students who feel losers because they live here. It probably wouldn’t have been any better elsewhere but it seems this is one of the reasons young people choose this path – towards the international airport”, writer and director Ivaylo Hristov says. The cast is composed of Ivaylo Hristov’s present and former students at the National academy of Theatre and Film Art – Elena Telbis, Deyan Donkov, Ovanes Torosian, Georgi Gotzin, Plamen Dimov. The director of photography is Emil Hristov and the producer is PROFILM – Asen Vladimirov.
Ivaylo Hristov is not only one of Bulgaria’s favourite actors but also a director with experience both on and off stage. His debut feature Emigranti, codirected with Lyudmil Todorov won national and international awards. Ivaylo also wrote and directed features My Friends Call Me Old Chap (2006) and Footsteps in the Sand (2010).
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The upcoming festival’s Balkan Competition includes one more Bulgarian work, director Kamen Kalev’s newest film Face Down(2015), coproduced by France, Bulgaria and Belgium. Based on a true story, Face Down tells the story of Samy (played by Cesar nominee and favourite French actor Melvil Poupaud), a Frenchman accused of smuggling counterfeit money from Bulgaria into France. To escape prison he becomes an informant for the French police and is implanted in a Bulgarian human trafficking organisation. Gradually he becomes close with a minor gipsy prostitute. The two are pressed by circumstances and forced to escape together…
Kamen Kalev graduated from FEMIS Paris. His debut film Eastern Plays was presented at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2009 and won the Best Director, Best Actor and Best Film Awards at the Tokyo IFF. Two years later his next film The Island also premiered at Cannes. The film stars Laetitia Casta, Thure Lindhardt (Angels and Demons). In 2014 Kamen Kalev was in Cannes once again with his Bridges of Sarajevo directed by 14 European artists including Jean-Luc Godard, Sergey Loznitsa, Ursula Meier and Cristi Puiu.
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Lazar (2015) by director Svetozar Ristovski deals with issues the issues of growing up and migration. The film is coproduced by Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia and France. When his father leaves the family Lazar is forced to grow up quickly. He joins the flow of illegal migrants through the Macedonia-Greece border and an accidental acquaintance changes his life dramatically…
Svetozar Ristovski was born in 1972 in Veles. He is the author of the documentary Joy of Life (2001) and his feature debut Mirage (2004) was presented at the 9th Sofia International Film Festival. His next film was Dear Mr. Gacy from 2010.
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Serb film Panama (2015) by director Pavle Vuckovic is his first feature. It tells the story of two friends. One of them meets a girl and is overwhelmed by the desire for full possession. Their relationship is overshadowed by jealousy. He becomes paranoid and stalks his beloved without trusting his friends and the world around him…
Pavle Vukovic was born in Belgrade in 1982. He graduated from the Drama Art Faculty in Belgrade. He’s been awarded twice at Cannes festival’s Cinefondation competition for his short films Run Rabbit Run (2003) and Minus (2007).
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Turkish-French-Qatari coproduction Frenzy (2015) by director Emin Alper takes viewers in the epicentre of political chaos in Istanbul. After 15 years in prison Kabir becomes an informant – he collects trash checking whether it doesn’t contain materials for bomb-making. One day he decides he brother Ahmet is in danger from terrorists…
Emin Alper was born in Konya, Turkey in 1974. He holds a PhD in Turkish history. His passion for cinema started when he was a student. His debut Tepenin Ardi was presented a SFF 2013 and won the Best Balkan Film Award. Frenzy is his second feature film.
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Serbian-German coproduction Enclave (2015) by director Goran Radovanovic tells a Balkan story about Serbs in Kosovo living in small isolated communities. 10-year-old Nenad has to go to school with an armoured KFOR vehicle. “My life in Kosovo is exactly as viewers see it on screen”, the young author shared at the presentation of the film at a festival. Goran Radovanovic is a Serb director born in Belgrade in 1957. He studied art history at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy. Since 1984 he has been writing and directing feature and documentary films.
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The High Sun (2015) by Dalibor Matanic is a coproduction between Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia. The film tells three love stories taking place in three different decades in nearby Balkan towns with longstanding ethnic tensions.
Dalibor Matanic was born in Zagreb in 1975. He graduated the Drama Art Academy. His first film Cashier Wants to Go to the Seaside won an award in Kotbus and was very successful in Croatia. Dalibor Matanic is a member of the European Film Academy. His newest feature film The High Sun won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
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Elias Demetriou’s Smac (2015) was presented at the Thessaloniki IFF in November 2015. It tells a story about the inevitable fear of death and the attempts to overcome it. The film will compete in the 20th SIFF’s International and Balkan competition. Its screenings in Sofia will be its international premiere.
Smac is elias Demetriou’s second feature film. His feature debut Fish n' Chips competed in the 15th Sofia International Film Festival’s international competition and was presented at some the biggest international festivals. Elias Demetriou was born in Cyprus in 1965. He has UK, Greek and Cyprus citizenship. He graduated film directing in Athens where he currently lives and works.
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Ten years after the enormous success of her first film Ryna (2005), Ruxandra Zenide offers viewers a new provocation – The Miracle of Tekir (2015), coproduced by Romania and Switzerland. The film tells the story of healer Mara who lives in a small village on the Danube. People in the village react to the news of her being pregnant in a very ambivalent way and Mara is forced to look for a new life… Music which plays a special role in The Miracle of Tekir makes this mysterious story even more powerful.
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Croatia-Slovenia-Serbia-UK coproduction Life is a Trumpet (2015) by Bosnian director Antonio Nuic is about people living in Croatia today and their everyday problems. Unlike his previous film Donkey, this film has no social or political message. “Whatever the social, historical or economic circumstances in people’s lives, they still live their lives. They eat, they drink, they laugh, they dance, they marry, they celebrate Christmas…”, Antonio Nuic shared. He was born in 1977 in Sarajevo. In 2009 his film Donkey was the Croatian Foreign Language Oscar proposal. In 2010 Nuic was elected president of the Croatian Film Directors Guild.
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Turkish film Bulanti (20015) by Zeki Demirkubuz is a story about a man’s lonely struggle and emotional survival after losing his wife and his daughter in an accident. Forced to cope with loneliness Ahmet (played by Zeki Demirkubuz himself) finds himself in strange situations. His first attempt at a relationship with a younger woman ends in complete silence and the second – in a dramatic scandal in which the woman’s jealous friend intervenes… Demirkubuz was born in Isparta in 1964. His film Üçüncü sayfa [The Third Page] won the award for best Turkish film at the Istanbul festival and competed at Locarno. The Confession was shown at the 7th Sofia International Film Festival.
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Kosovo’s contender in the upcoming Balkan competition Babai [Dad] (2015) by Visar Molina is a story about 10-year-old Nori and his father who roam the streets and sell cigarettes to make enogh money for food. Several years after the fall of the Brlin Wall the father goes off to look for a better life in Germany, leaving his son in Kosovo. Overwhelmed by loneliness and despair, Nori embarks on a dangerous journey to Germany in search of his dad…
Visar Molina’s film is the winner of two awards at the Karlovy Vary festival, including for best director and four awards from the Munich film festival (for best director, best script, best actor for both of the actors in the leading roles).
WE LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU AT THE CINEMA – the 20th Sofia International Film Festival’s Balkan competition will traditionally be presented at Odeon Cinema!