After the three prestigious awards of Sofia Film Fest 2011 for the debut film "Shelter" launched by Sofia Meetings (Best film in an international competition, Best Bulgarian film and Audience award), after three more prizes at Sofia Film Fest 2019 for the second his film, which also started its journey from Sofia Meetings - "The Pig" (Special jury award, Award for Best Bulgarian film and FIPRESCI award), Dragomir Sholev is ready to present to the audience of the 26th Sofia Film Fest his third feature film "Fishbone", a co-production between Bulgaria and Romania, realized by experienced producers Rositsa Valkanova and Ada Solomon.
The plot follows nine dramatic stories, reflected in the eye of a dying dolphin, accidentally found on the beach. 9 situations in which people are pressured to react, but they are confused, scared, each immersed in their worries and problems. 9 perspectives on an absurd world where people are like a dying dolphin - and no one knows how to take care of it…
Here is what Dragomir Sholev shared with Maria Panayotova for “Kultura” magazine:
"This project has gone through many different stages, for eight years. A lot has changed and the attitude towards the text is also changing. But thanks to time, things mature and you have to be able to withstand the idea and your fantasies… Creativity is also a search somewhere inside yourself for things that have not happened, but are about to happen. Or maybe they happen every day, but you notice them when the time comes when you are sufficiently prepared for them… "Fishbone" is a story that stands in a kind of borderline state, between two beings - water and land, civilization and the wild , the sacred and the profane, summer and autumn, the funny and the sad, the right and the wrong… "
Behind the script of "Herringbone" are the film's director, Emanuela Dimitrova and Georgi Merdjanov. The cameraman is Nenad Borojevic, who works with Drago Sholev for the first time on his feature film and has serious experience with works by Bulgarian directors such as "Ave", "And then light", "18% gray", "Mission London" and many others. . The music is the work of Nikola Gruev - Kottarashky. The roles are divided between Deyan Donkov, Suzi Radichkova, Valentin Andreev - Rafe, Mariana Antonova, Maria Sufieva, Gloria Petkova, Eli Koleva and many others. Herringbone was awarded the SBFD Award for Best Film at the Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival 2021, as well as the Cinematography Prize.
Drago Sholev is well known not only to the Bulgarian audience with his short and full-length films, but also to film specialists in international forums around the world. "Before Life After Death", which won the Jameson Award for Best Bulgarian Short Film at the 2005 SFF, was presented in New York, Lodz, Sarajevo. Cannes 2003, "The Mediator" has a special diploma from the Jameson competition at SFF 2008 and is included in short selections at festivals in Karlovy Vary, Barcelona, Bologna, Tel Aviv, Hiroshima, Moscow, Toulouse, Budapest and others. His feature debut "Shelter" was presented in over 80 international festival selections, and its world premiere was in the "New Directors" section of San Sebastian, and then participated in the programs of Bratislava (Director's Award), Thessaloniki, Rotterdam, Los Angeles (Debut award), Prague, Munich, Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Sarajevo, Odessa, Haifa, Bogota and others. Drago Sholev is also the director of over 400 advertising and promotional videos of leading brands on the Bulgarian and international markets, shot in Greece, China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia.
“Fishbone” is produced by CLASS Film, Hi Film Productions and BNT, together with AVANPOST and the Romanian National Television; The film was made with the support of the National Film Center (Bulgaria), the National Center for Cinematography (Romania), EUROIMAGE, Cinegrand.
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