Two Bulgarian films supported by the Bulgarian National Film Center at the Berlinale Competition
Milko lazarov’s Аga has been selected for the Berlinale Competition at the 68th edition of the festival
For the first time in 29 years Bulgarian feature film is selected to participate at the Berlin IFF's Competition section. In 1989 Ivan and Alexandra by Ivan Nichev participated in the prestigious selection.
Aga is the second feature by Milko Lazarov, whose debut Alienation (2013) was selected at Venice IFF. The script was written by Milko Lazarov and Simeon Ventsislavov and was awarded the prestigious Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award for the Best Eastern and Central European Script in 2015. The project was started at Sofia Meetings under the working title Nanook. Behind the camera is Kaloyan Bozhilov. The shooting took place in Yakutia Republic in Russia – one of the coldest places on Earth.
Aga is a Bulgaria/ Germany/ France co-production. The film is produced by Red Carpet – Veselka Kiryakova and coproduced by 42film, ARIZONA PRODUCTIONS, BNT, ZDF/ARTE with the financial support of Bulgarian National Film Center, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée, Institut Français.
In the far North, Sedna and Nanook dream of bringing back their family together. After Sedna’s death, Nanook walks a long way to find his daughter Ága, who ran away years ago.
For a long time, I’ve been fascinated how the modern and quickly developing world concerns the small communities; how processes that have nothing in common at first sight, affect fatally the life of entire nations.
My intention with this movie is to look steadily at how the global warming and the offensive civilization put to proof the conservation of Northern communities. I am interested how these same people, who live in unbearable conditions for the modern man, have succeeded to preserve the delicacy in their interpersonal relations, and to perceive life with smile and sympathy.
by Milko Lazarov
The Bulgarian minority co-production Touch Me Not will compete at Berlinale. The debut feature Touch Me Not is a Romania / Germany / Czech Republic / Bulgaria / France co-production by Romanian director Adina Pintilie.The cast includes Irmena Chichikova and Georgi Naldzhiev. The Bulgarian co-producer is Agitprop – Martichka Bozhilova with the support of Bulgarian National Film Center.
Touch Me Not is a hybrid between reality and fiction, in which the characters are looking for intimacy. Their solitudes intersect – by chance or by faith – in a long yearn for attempt for communication. This is a personal inquiry into intimacy, which questions the ways in which we perceive it. The film tackles the question how human beings could achieve intimacy in the most unexpected ways.
This selection proves to be yet another great success for Bulgarian cinema after last year’s participation at Cannes of Directions by Stephan Komandarev and the co-production Western by Valeska Griesebach and the Golden Leopard from Locarno awarded to Ilian Metev for his feature 3/4.
In the recent years Bulgarian films benefit from not only international recognition, but also increasing audience engagement and box office sales in Bulgaria.
