Serbian director Dusan Milic is well known to the Bulgarian audience - since the well-marked debut "Strawberry in the supermarket" his films have been presented in various programs of the Sofia Film Festival and have been distributed inBulgaria. The world premiere of the famous latest film "Darkling" is in the competition program of the festival in Trieste this Sunday, and in March we’ll have the opportunity to see it on the big screen in Bulgaria.
Presented as a project at Sofia Meetings, "Darkling" impresses international film experts, and the co-production between Serbia, Denmark and Bulgaria was joined by producers from Italy and Greece. The result is an impactful psychological thriller, with the drawing from the consequences of the Kosovo war, but with its metaphoric language gives it a universal reading.
Somewhere in the mountains of Kosovo, in a property surrounded by dense forest, Milica lives with her mother and grandfather. When the sun goes down, the family barricades themselves in the house, frightened by the horrors heard in the forest. Is the fear in the besieged house an echo of the time of the war or is it a figment of the imagination of the inhabitants, is there still international security for the security in the region? There is no physical evidence that something bad is happening, but with each passing night, fear overwhelms them again ...
Dusan Milic is the author of the screenplay for "Darkling" and all his feature films, as well as the screenplay of "The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Everywhere", winner of 30 international and national awards and presented at over 90 festivals around the world. Milic graduated from the Department of Film and Television Directing at the University of Dramatic Arts in his native Belgrade. His first two films "Strawberry in the Supermarket" (produced by Emir Kusturica) and "Gucha!" (Produced by Karl Baumgartner with Oscar-winning co-producers Josef Aikholzer and Stefan Kitanov) were presented in the official program "Panorama" at the Berlinale. The premiere of his third film, “Travelator'', was in the competition program of the Montreal Film Festival, where it won the Innovation Award. Here is what the author shares about his fourth feature film:
"After the war in Kosovo, many families of both nationalities, Serbs and Albanians, were separated, frightened and devastated - physically and mentally. They did not need this war. They know that in the future they will have to stay there and live next door, even if everything is forgotten. In all this, strong distrust nurtured the desire for revenge. This is a story about gold, which is inseparable from our essence. What we see may not be the next at the moment… The characters of the film live in fear - the first fear of the dark, of what will come when it gets dark and you have to fall asleep. It is a metaphor for darkness and what it instills in people's souls.
Bulgarian co-producer of "Darkling" is "RFF International" (Stefan Kitanov and Mira Staleva) with the support of the National Film Center. The vision is extremely important for creating an atmosphere in a film and here the Bulgarian cameraman Kiril Prodanov ("The Blessed One", "Irina", "Living Chimneys", "Radio Gramophone") shines with his skills, presenting his most ambitious work. The make-up artist Simeonova, assistant cameraman and the lighting team The fifth Bulgarian participation in the production. Milic has entrusted the roles of Slavko Stimac (known from Kusturica's films), Danica Churcic, Miona Ilov, Flavio Parenti, Ivan Zerbinati and others; composer is Christian Aidnes Andersen.
“Darkling” is a production of Film Deluxe International, This and That Productions, Firefly Productions, Space Rocket Nation, A_Lab s.r.l., RFF International, GRAAL Films; It was realized with the financial support of the Film Center in Serbia, the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, EURIMAGES, the Danish Film Institute, IA "National Film Center" (Bulgaria), FVG Audiovisual Fund, Film Fund "Friuli Venezia Giulia", Greek Film Center, ERT (Greek Public TV), Creative Europe Program MEDIA, DR - Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
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