Congratulations to Anna Nemes & Csuja László for winning the FIRST PRIZE in the amount of $50,000 at the closing event of the The Jerusalem International Film Lab for the project GENTLE MONSTER (writer-directors Anna Nemes and Csuja László, Hungary)!
The project was presented Sofia Meetings 2018 with the working title THE CROWN OF CREATION and won the EastWest Filmdistribution award.
Edina (35) is a professional body builder lives with her boyfriend and coach Ádám (40). They would sacrifice everything to win the Arnold Classic Championship but before the competition Edina falls in love with a strange man and that tragic love questions everything she believed in.
A film about “a monster who becomes human”, The Crown of Creation follows Edina, a professional female bodybuilder who lives with her very controlling coach, Adam. The couple dreams of winning an important international competition, but as they focus so intensely on their goal, neither of them has time for a normal job, which prompts Edina to earn money as a BDSM escort. A client of hers will cause her to renegotiate the relationships in her life. Anna Nemes said that Edina was created by her environment. “Our movie is about how falling in love makes a puppet become a person,” she adds. The directorial duo plans to shoot on film, in two different visual styles, so that Edina’s life as a sportswoman is sharply contrasted with her actions as a sex worker. Producer Andras Muhi, representing FocusFox Studio, says the budget amounts to €1.2 million, with approximately €200,000 coming from Hungary’s tax incentive system.
“The best thing is when something comes to life and you start to feel that what matters to you touches others. I was happy when they said we won, my hand started to chirp, I never felt like that, ”said the director. “But if I think back, the most important feeling is when we shot the scene we shot for the pie. After the scene they turned on the light and I saw everyone sliding down twenty cents below his chair and looking at him with a glassy view. At that time I first really felt that what we invented would work. Zagon Nagy plays an important role in doing so well, and we shot the scene with him, and then we'll take the film with him. ” "Edina is an extreme character, it is very difficult to make such a figure viable. The challenge was not to make the story a didactic lesson, or to keep the characters' behaviors from losing the viewer, "she recalled. He has been dealing with this topic for a long time, and the documentary on female bodybuilders will soon be ready: "I've spent more time in their world than in my own in the past few years." "There's a woman who doesn't really know what she feels or wants, but she's reflecting on the end of the story." interview for magyar.film.hi
DETAILED information about the “Gentle Monster” you can find on screendaily.com
The jury statement: “Reading this script about female body building was a physical experience, affecting our biceps and other muscles, eventually moving to our minds and imagination. This is an uncompromising, compassionate, and bold, script and pitching - and we are certain that the best is yet to come”.
WELL DONE, friends!
