It’s the perfect period of the year – the spring is coming, the days are longer, the upcoming Sofia Meetings projects selection is done. And may all of the selected succeed in becoming features full of festivals and awards histories. We are pleased to announce Sofia Meetings 2019 selection:
Second Film Projects
BLACK SALT, Netherlands
Marjoleine Boonstra (director)
Denis Vaslin (producer)
Fleur Knopperts (producer)
Volya Films
Logline: After her father’s death Nia (32) and her Dutch husband Oscar (40) return to the remote Caucasian village from which she fled over a decade ago. After a warm reunion with her older sister Tamar, who runs a children’s sanatorium in the local black salt mine, Tamar leaves without much explanation, forcing Nia to run the sanatorium and also take care of the mysterious blind clairvoyant boy who lives there. The longer Nia stays in the village, the more her past comes back to haunt her.
HEIMATLOS, Turkey
Haci Orman (director)
Ugur Sahin (producer)
Praksis Film
Logline: Stefan Zweig flees to Brazil to forget the past, but his past is like a ghost.
LUNA PARK, Albania
Florenc Papas (director)
Dritan Huqi (producer)
On Film
Logline: During an outbreak of civil violence in Albania, a mother and her troubled teenage son struggle to leave their chaotic country for neighboring Greece, hoping to find Arben, the family patriarch they haven’t seen in four years.
NAJVA, Turkey/Bulgaria/Canada
Gozde Kural (director)
Ugur Can Gursozlu (producer)
Toz Film/Dreams Industry/GPA Films
Logline: A mother sets out on a journey to reunite with her lost son, after she survives the slaughter of their entire family by Taliban raid in rural Afghanistan.
NO LAND FOR ME, Israel
Ram Nehari (director)
Yifat Prestelnik (producer)
Yifat Prestelnik Films
Logline: Alex is growing up in an immigrant family from the former USSR. There is no father in the house, just an absent mother who works as a cleaner. When his adored big brother is killed in the army, Alex tries hard to get in his shoes at home and among his friends but he is too sensitive.
No land for me is a story about a Russian adolescence that wants to become an Israeli man and doesn't know what the right way of doing that.
THE KINGDOM OF CHAMLA, Bulgaria
Victor Bojinov (director)
Galina Toneva (producer)
Gala Film
In partnership with Mediterranean Film Institute
Plus Minus One Projects
DECONSTRUCTION, Bulgaria
Pavel G. Vesnakov (director)
Veselka Kiryakova (producer)
Red Carpet
Logline: Angel is the last astronomer working in the biggest observatory in Southeastern Europe on mount Rozhen. When he learns that the state intends to close down the observatory, Angel decides to preserve its giant lens, which he believes to have photographed God with.
INKWASH, Romaniа
Sarra Tsorakidis (director)
Anca Puiu (producer)
Mandragora
Logline: An aspiring with money problems, accepts a job in a hotel at a hotel in a secluded mountain area, hoping to escape her lonely life and unlock her true potential.
LET IT BE, Poland
Łukasz Grzegorzek (director)
Natalia Grzegorzek (producer)
Koskino
Logline: The head of a family and a respected teacher in a small-town high school, as a result of blackmail has to defend his good name.
PAMFIR, Ukraine
Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (director)
Aleksandra Kostina (producer)
Bosonfilm
Logline: Pamfir wants to be a decent family man, but challenged by the circumstances he is forced to give up honest bread winning to help his family.
PANOPTICON, Georgia
George Sikharulidze (director)
Vladimer Katcharava (producer)
20 Steps
Logline: After his father abandons him to become a monk, a sixteen-year-old SANDRO, struggles to reconcile his growing devotion to God and his awakening sexuality, which manifests in uncontrollable ways and leads him to questionable actions, as he searches for meaning and belonging in the turbulent society of post-Soviet Georgia.
PATASHNIK, Ireland
Emer Reynolds (director)
Rioghnach Ni Ghrioghair (producer)
Samson Films
Bankside Films (sales agent)
In partnership with Screen Ireland
Logline: Years of isolation have warped a lone astronaut’s mind as she races against time to deliver her precious cargo before the ship disintegrates.
THE SPARROW,Ireland
Michael Kiniros (director)
Alicia Ni Ghrainne (producer)
Tiger Darling, Hail Mary Pictures
In partnership with Screen Ireland
Logline: A teenager lies about his brother’s death and struggles to face the consequences that unfold until his domineering father offers the possibility of forgiveness.
UNITY, Turkey
Serpil Altin (director)
Korhan Ugur (producer)
Serpil Altin Film
Logline: Lali is a Georgian caregiver living in Turkey. When she was about to go see her sick daughter staying in her country, she needs money for her daughter’s broken walker. She starts to work as a caregiver for the old, cancer patient Riza, who has only two months left. Riza wants to meet his death in his homeland, Muratli village in Artvin. In this village which they go together, they question their lives and how to become a family.
VORTEX, Greece
Chrisanthos Margonis (director)
Eleni Kossyfidou (producer)
Blackbird Production
In partnership with Crossroads
In partnership with Mediterranean Film Institute
Logline: An ordinary man is lured by a bipolar woman into a delirious road-trip to the southernmost part of Europe, Crete, in order to escape from the European continent, which is in war.
WINDY DAYS ARE GOOD FOR FLYING, Bulgaria
Petar Krumov (director)
Rositsa Valkanova (producer)
Klas Film
Logline: Some days are for reciting poetry, some – for hunting.
Projects in Bank
HOTLINE, Kosovo/Croatia
Dren Zherka (director)
Bujar Kabashi (producer)
N'art and Woof Films
In partnership with EAVE
Logline: A young woman is stuck in the misogynistic web spun around her and squeezing her into a quicksand of desolation. She has to decide how deep does she sink in order to escape out of it.
IN LIMBO, Russia
Alexander Hant (director)
Ruben Dishdishyan (producer)
Mars Media
Logline: Two sixteen-year-olds in a Russian provincial town escape from their controlling parents and embark on a journey, that will be full of love, danger, death, and – above all – LIFE.
IN THE HEART OF THE MACHINE, Bulgaria
Martin Makariev (director)
Alexander Penev (producer)
Forward Pictures
Logline: A workgroup of inmates in a turnery workshop in Kremikovci factory try to release a bird trapped in a lathe’s cogs. The men risk their lives because sometimes humanity can appear in the most unexpected ways, and the will for redemption can triumph over reason.
MIRA, Poland
Anna Jadowska (director)
Maria Blicharska (producer)
Donten & Lacroix
Logline: Nobody knows that the midwife Mira (58) has fallen into a debt spiral. On the verge of a nervous breakdown, she attempts to rob a bank. Mira fails, but finally takes a close look at her life, deciding to break free from the routine existence of a housewife next to an unloving husband.
MOTHER, Bulgaria
Zornitsa Sophia (director)
Zornitsa Sophia (producer)
Production MQ Pictures
Logline: The true story of Elena, a workaholic theater director, who struggles to get acknowledged and loses her ability to have kids at the age of 32. She creates a method to develop artistic expression of orphans in Bulgaria and receives an invitation to “export” it in Kenya at the same moment when has a chance for in vitro with her professional guru and lover Hans. What Elena chooses leads her to being acknowledged as “mother” by thousands.
PETYA OF MY PETYA, Bulgaria
Alexander Kossev (director)
Nikolay Urumov (producer)
BOF Pictures/Concept Studio
Logline: Talented, outspoken and rebellious teenager Petya feels betrayed by everyone she trusts. A surreal encounter between life and death with her poetess idol Petya Dubarova helps her find truth about love.
THE INVISIBLE FIGHT, Estonia
Rainer Sarnet (director)
Kathrin Kissa (producer)
Homeless Bob
Logline: A kung fu comedy where a car mechanic becomes a monk, a hoodlum a saint. “The Invisible Fight" is set in an Orthodox monastery in 1970’s Soviet Union.
THE STRANGERS OF THE COLD MOUNTAIN, France/Argentina
Albertina Carri (director)
Mani Mortazavi (producer)
4 A 4 Productions, El Borde Cine
Logline: Cristian Plum, a deformed being, cut off from everyday life, lives in reclusion with his despotic and ailing mother in a mountain village. Supposedly abandoned by his father as a child, Cristian looks after a herd of pigs he considers to be more intelligent than humans, but less cruel. It is his secret refuge. The day he meets Flora Lock, a brilliant and rebellious girl, his life will take an unexpected turn. Both beings are solitary, special and innocent and a friendship arises between them. A fateful and chilling occurrence, the death of Plum’s mother, will soon see both of them open their eyes to the cruelty of the adult world.
THE TINDERBOX, Russia
Andjei Petras (director)
Anastassia Razlogova (producer)
Kamer-Ton-Film
Logline: We create our own fairy tale and we live it!
TO THE NORTH, Romania
Mihai Mincan (director)
Radu Stancu (producer)
de FILM
In partnership with EAVE
Logline: A frenetic psychological thriller based on a true story about two Eastern European migrants who are chased on a mysterious Asian cargo ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1996.
First Films First
BLIND SPOT, Bulgaria
Stefka Mancheva (director)
Vanya Rainova (producer)
Portokal
Logline: A sugar-free coming-of-age story about four girls finding their way into adulthood in a small provincial town preoccupied with the suicide of their classmate.
ETERNITY PACKAGE, Bulgaria
Magdelena Ilieva (director)
Martichka Bojilova (producer)
Agitprop
Logline: BOBBY (35), a struggling funeral agent, travels around his declining hometown in his beat-up old hearse, looking to profit from death while desperately attempting to regrow love where it has been blighted.
HONEY BUNNY, Croatia
Igor Jelinović (director)
Rea Rajčić (producer)
Eclectica
Logline: Anita, aka Koke, the irritating aunt tramples everyone (including her only sister’s family) who stands in her way towards the desired family inheritance - attractive summer house on the island of Hvar.
SMARAGDA, Cyprus
Emilios Avraam (director)
Marios Piperides (producer)
AMP Filmworks
Logline: An identity crisis-coming of age story about a childless middle-aged kids entertainer who redefines her self.
SNOW AND THE BEAR, Turkey/Germany
Selcen Ergun (director)
Nefes Polat (producer)
Nefes Films, Albino Zebra Film, Riva Film
Logline: Aslı has recently appointed as a nurse to a small distant town, where the winter surprisingly doesn’t come to an end. A man goes missing the night that Aslı has an argument with him and she finds herself in the middle of intertwined power relationships, secrets and doubt.
THE END OF THE WORLD, Serbia
Vojin Vasović (director)
Milos Ivanovic (producer)
Platforma
Logline: A family of anarchists lives what seems to be a harmonious and isolated existence on a secluded lake, when the death of their father exposes the family’s secret and a newly built road brings civilization into their utopia.
THE MAN WITHOUT GUILT, Slovenia/Italy
Ivan Gergolet (director)
David Cej (producer)
Staragara, Transmedia Production
Logline: Angela, a 50 years old widow who lost her husband because of asbestosis, meets the man responsible for his death. She decides to become his caregiver to punish him, losing herself in an emotional labyrinth through the slight shades that divide revenge from forgiveness, the lies from the truth. The victim and the executioner on the same stage. A working class noir film.
THE RIVER, Greece
Haris Raftogiannis (director)
Eleni Kossyfidou (producer)
Blackbird Production
Logline: What is so called "progress" for him, is a threat for her.
A car accident brings them close.
Their common passion for McNuggets even closer.