Also featured in the program are “The Erl-King” by Goran Radovanović, “Traffic” by Teodora Ana Mihai, and “Luna Park” by Florenc Papas.
Following its remarkable success in Toronto, the new film “Triumph” by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov will be presented as the Bulgarian entry in the Balkan Competition at the 29th Sofia Film Festival.
“Triumph” is a black comedy inspired by one of the great mysteries of the last century — the pit in Tsarichina village. After the fall of communism in the early 1990s, a team of high-ranking officers from the Bulgarian army, led by a clairvoyant, begins digging a pit in search of a mysterious artifact. Maria Bakalova stars as Slava — a girl who happens to be at the scene and is unexpectedly drawn into the secret military operation.
“Triumph” was ranked among the Top 10 best films in the Toronto Film Festival program according to Rolling Stone. This marks the first production project by Oscar-nominated Maria Bakalova and Julian Kostov, who also appear in the cast. The film also features Margita Gosheva, Julian Vergov, Stanislav Ganchev, Ivan Savov, and Ivan Barnev. Its team includes Oscar-nominated editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, known for his work on Yorgos Lanthimos’s “The Favourite” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.”
The new work by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov has been honored with awards for Best Film, Best Screenplay, the BFA Award, and the Audience Award at the “Golden Rose” festival in Varna, while actresses Maria Bakalova and Margita Gosheva jointly received the Best Female Role Award. The co-production is realized by Abraxas Film (Bulgaria) and Graal Films (Greece) with financial support from the Bulgarian National Film Center, Euroimges, the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union (in co-production with the Greek Film Center), Bulgarian National Television, Greek Radio and Television ERT, Five Oceans, Red Carpet, and Dystopia Films, with additional support from the American Foundation for Bulgaria, the Central Cooperative Union, and the Ministry of Culture. The worldwide distributor of the film is the British company Bankside Films, while No Blink Film is its distributor in Bulgaria.
The Balkan Competition at the 29th Sofia Film Fest also features Goran Radovanović’s new film “The Erl-King” (a co-production between Serbia and Bulgaria – Premier Studio), the co-production “Traffic” by director Teodora Ana Mihai (a collaboration between Romania, Belgium, and the Netherlands), as well as Florenc Papas’s film “Luna Park” (a co-production between Albania, Greece, Italy, Croatia, and Kosovo).
Experienced director Goran Radovanović, who previously touched on themes of tolerance and understanding in a moving way with “Enclave,” now takes us back to the 1990s in Belgrade during the NATO bombings. The feeling of fear and hopelessness is conveyed through the eyes of little Sava, who is forced to confront the drama of war alongside his mother. The film “The Erl-King” tells a story built on symbols and metaphors reflecting the inner state of its characters. The military conflict that fundamentally altered the lives of all peoples united in the former Yugoslavia is presented through historical news accounts and the nightmare of bombs exploding near the young protagonist, whose trauma permanently destroys his childhood innocence. The Bulgarian producer of the film is Nikolay Mutafchiev.
The screenwriter of Romanian director Teodora Mihay’s second feature film “Traffic” is Cristian Mungiu, who is also the main producer alongside Tudor Reu. Among the co-producers are brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and its world premiere took place at the Warsaw Film Festival ‘24, where it won the Grand Prize in the international competition. The story follows the misadventures of emigrants Natalia and Ginel, who set off from their small Danube village for a large Flemish city in Europe in search of work. After being attacked by a local resident, Natalia turns to a Romanian friend—who has become a local con man—to find an outlet for her disillusionment with the arrogant Western world, which treats all “foreigners” as inferior and even invisible. At the Tokyo Film Festival, Anamaria Vartolomei, who plays Natalia, was awarded Best Actress. The Romanian film is also part of the Rotterdam festival program before it appears on the big screen in our country this March.
Albanian director Florenc Papas is participating in the Balkan Competition at the 29th Sofia Film Festival with his second feature film “Luna Park.” His debut “Open Door” began as a project at Sofia Meetings and, after screenings in Sarajevo and Thessaloniki in 2019, was included in the program of the 24th SFF in 2020. Papas’s new story is about a single mother and the inevitable challenges of raising a teenager, especially a boy. Mira and her son Tony must also contend with the reality of transitioning between different political regimes in post-communist Albania. The plot is inspired by Papas’s childhood memories, and he co-wrote the film with Glykeria Patramani. “Luna Park” is joining the Balkan Competition program in Sofia after previous festival screenings in Thessaloniki and India.
The full program of the Balkan Competition at the 29th Sofia Film Fest will be announced in February.
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