12-11-2008

Bulgarian producers tempted by Thessaloniki

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    Thessaloniki IFF (www.filmfestival.gr) has selected a number of Bulgarian projects and films for the forthcoming Agora Film Market and the Balkan Survey program.

    Rossitsa Valkanova (KLAS Film) is introducing two projects: Crayfish by director Ivan Cherkelov and False Witness by director Iglika Trifonova. Telling a crime story of two friends involved in a game of domination between two mafia bosses, Crayfish will be included in the Works in Progress screenings, exclusively aimed at distributors and sales agents.

    Backed by the National Film Center, the film is still in postproduction. "Thanks to Cherkelov's strong artistic involvement I dare to announce that it will be most intriguing," Valkanova said. False Witness aims to continue Trifonova's success with Investigation (Grand Prix, Cottbus IFF, 2007). This time Trifonova has written a story about a renowned Dutch attorney of Russian descent defending one of the most high-profile war criminals brought to trial by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. "The action will take place in the Netherlands and Bosnia, and I am counting on Crossroads to find partners," she said.

    Also in Agora, Geopoly's Georgy Cholakov will promote Ivan Rossenov's Between Heaven and Earth, which is already supported by Media. The script, written in collaboration with Pulitzer winner Elizabeth Frank and co-produced by Steve Bowden's UK-based Vita Nova Films, is a passionate memoir about Rossenov's wife Katya Paskaleva (a famous actress from the Bulgarian classic The Goat Horn). "Half of the film needs to be shot in New York, because that is the town where Katya and Ivan spent their last days together before her premature death," Cholakov said.

    US-based Vladislav Todorov, who wrote Dzift, and director Javor Gardev will present their new project Zincograph in the Balkan Film Fund competition. With a powerful story, where a rejected communist secret police informant manages to pull off a roguish act on the entire political system in 1988, once again, the avant-garde duo will defend their use of black sarcasm and modern style.