The Sofia Film Festival's International Competition for First and Second Films is being held for the 24th year, and its jury will be responsible for awarding the Grand Prize "Sofia - City of Film", provided by the Sofia Municipality. In addition to the two films that have already been announced - "Lust" by Ralitza Petrova and "Women Out of Order" by Alexander Kossev, we present six more films from the competition:
Nina Roza by the Canadian director Geneviève Dulude-De Celles was made with significant Bulgarian participation. Bulgarian actor and director Galin Stoev plays the main character Mihail – an emigrant to Canada, forced to return to Bulgaria after a 30-year absence. Only if he personally sees the work of a talented girl in his homeland, will he be able to determine whether she is a genius or a deceiver. Forced to face the past, which must be forgotten, he will realize to what extent he has distanced himself from his own daughter, who shared the emigrant fate with him.
The film is a co-production between Canada, Italy, Bulgaria and Belgium. The role of the daughter Rose is played by Michelle Tzontchev, with the heroine Nina being played by the twins Sofia and Ekaterina Stanini, and in the other roles we will see Svetlana Yancheva, Elena Atanasova, Dimitar Nikolov, Anastasia Koleva and others. Nina Rosa's world premiere is in the Berlinale main competition programme.
* * *
The theme of women trying to find their way in life, regardless of where they were born and what their destiny is, continues to be central to the film narratives of Bolivian writer and director Álvaro Olmos Torrico. His second feature film, The Condor Daughter, tells the story of a remote community high in the Bolivian Andes – young Clara learns the songs and sacred traditions of midwifery from her adoptive mother Ana, who helps pregnant women in the villages in the area. Clara is an intelligent and curious girl and is naturally attracted to the influences that permeate her community – she takes the risk of leaving and trying to become a singer in a nearby town. This film juxtaposes the traditions of the Quechua people with modernity – through a story from South America, the director recreates the inevitable change that is part of our time.
* * *
The feature-length debut of Greek director and screenwriter Amerissa Basta, Life in a Beat, follows the eternal pursuit of happiness – part of the path of growing up. The monotonous everyday life of young Lena, combined with constant family conflicts, suddenly turns upside down when she loses her job and discovers that she is pregnant. Whether she will be given the opportunity to regain her independence – the chance to achieve harmony depends on the choice she will make. Basta’s co-writer is Dimitris Nakos, who is also one of the producers of the film, a co-production between Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria (Ivan Tonev, Ars Digital), North Macedonia, Montenegro and France.
* * *
Romanian writer, journalist and director Cecilia Ștefănescu makes her feature film debut with A Safe Place – a film which focuses on the changes in the lives of two close friends who recharge their batteries on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. One of them is Lucia, who has a wonderful family, but after the sudden appearance of a man from her past, intrigues become entangled and feelings are getting stronger and wilder.
* * *
The first feature film by German screenwriter and director Kai Stänicke, Trial of Hein, tells the story of a member of a small community who returns to his hometown and is greeted with distrust and skepticism. Doubts about the “foreigner” Hein grow to such an extent that the village community convenes a court to determine whether an impostor is trying to infiltrate their isolated island in the North Sea. The film explores the way in which relationships between people change under the influence of pressure from common notions - about good and evil, truth and lies.
* * *
As in her debut feature Dust, which followed the dangerous journey of a woman who wants to bury her mother in Afghanistan, the second feature film by Turkish director Gözde Kural focuses again on the fate of women. Her heroine Leyla's family is wiped out by the Taliban, and she takes the most dangerous step - she changes her identity to find her kidnapped son, but even the slightest hesitation on this path leads to death. Cinema Jazireh is a co-production between Turkey, Iran, Bulgaria and Romania, with Svetla Tsotsorkova as the Bulgarian co-producer.
Stay tuned for information about the other films in the International Competition and in the program of the 30th Sofia Film Festival!
* * *
WE ARE WAITING FOR YOU AT #CINEMA!
#30SofiaIFF
