November 25-28, 2012

Transcription

November 25-28, 2012
Baltic Event Organizers and Team
RIINA SILDOS
Managing Director
Phone: +372 504 8985
[email protected]
LILI PILT
Co-Production Market
Coming Soon Coordinator
Phone: +372 5332 4618
EDA KOPPEL
Event Manager
Marketing, Press
Phone: +372 520 3306
[email protected]
LIISI PUHK
B’EST Coordinator
Phone: +372 5695 8123
KADRI KILP
Guest Service Manager
Phone: +372 527 6039
[email protected]
ANU ERNITS
POWR Manager
Phone: +372 522 2200
[email protected]
ALICE AASMÄE-KAHAR
Guest Service Assistant
Phone: +372 5664 7907
[email protected]
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TIINA TERAS
Baltic Distribution Roundtable
Project Coordinator
Phone: +372 557 1235
LEANA JALUKSE
Co-Production Market Manager
Phone: +372 5648 3490
[email protected]
KATI REMMELKOOR
BE Screenings Coordinator
Phone: +372 5620 1101
LIISI JALUKSE
Co-Production Market Assistant
Phone: +372 5669 0989
HELI JÜRISSON
Industry panels Coordinator
Phone: +372 5365 2303
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Contents
Programme
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6
BE co-production market projects:
All the Best / Croatia
Breathing into Marble / Lithuania
Eastern Business / Romania
Escaping Sunshine / Lithuania
The Fencer / Finland
F***ing Swedes / Sweden
The Hoppers / Estonia
The Journalist / Kazakhstan
Morten on the Ship of Fools / Estonia
The Tree / Slovenia
Vergo / Iceland
The Year of Prophecy / Poland
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15
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17
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Baltic Bridge East by West - B’EST projects:
Finka / Finland
The General / Russia
Good-bye / Germany
Hogweed / Russia
House of Others / Georgia
Lucid Space / Armenia
Mellow Mud / Latvia
The Night of the 1000 Hours / Austria
Saaremaa / France
Sharnohoy - the Yellow Dog / Russia
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27
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POWR:
Dance for Me / Denmark
Dear Sister / Sweden
Depression Comedy / Finland
Metaphors / Estonia
Pykeija / Finland
Special Price / Lithuania
Wall of Nails / Lithuania
X’ANIA / Norway
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BE Screenings:
Demons / Estonia
Pizzas / Latvia
Christmas Uncensored / Lithuania
Mushrooming / Estonia
All Musicians Are Bastards / Estonia
Fortress of Sleeping Butterflies / Lithuania
Narcissus / Lithuania, Greece
Vanishing Waves / Lithuania, France, Belgium
Mom, I Love You / Latvia
A Lady in Paris / Estonia, France, Belgium
Purge / Estonia, Finland
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BE Coming Soon. Estonia
BE Coming Soon. Latvia
BE Coming Soon. Lithuania
BE Coming Soon. Finland
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59
63
67
Focus on Kazakhstan
Coming Soon. Kazakhstan
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Plenary Presentations and Roundtable:
The International Market and Working with Sales Agents
Music Rights
European Distributors’ Roundtable
Producers and Moviegoers: A Film Marketing Strategy
Searching for the Spotlight: Festival Publicity
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Dear friends and colleagues,
B
altic Event 2012 is bigger than ever. We have
grown year after year, constantly bringing you
new program sections. We started in 2002
with just screenings, then welcomed worksin-progress from the Baltic countries in the
Coming Soon section in 2003. Next, we introduced the co-production market in 2005
and the POWR script and pitch workshop in
2008. In 2010, we expanded our focus to the
East by welcoming four projects from Russia and Ukraine, presented under the Baltic Event for East label. In 2012, this initiative developed into the Baltic Bridge East by West (B’EST), a training and
promotion workshop designed for feature film projects from the
European Union, the CIS countries and Georgia. Held in conjunction with the Eurasia Film Meetings and EAVE, the first meeting
took place during the Moscow International Film Festival. At Baltic
Event, the intermediary development phase of the 10 projects will
be concluded, culminating in an open pitch. The line-up includes
filmmakers like Georgian-born Bakur Bakuradze, whose first and
second feature films were selected to the Cannes Film Festival,
and Bair Dishenov, who won the Crystal Bear in Berlin for his debut
short. This year, we are also proud to present two Finnish projects
in our formerly Baltics-only section Coming Soon to recognize the
importance of our partner, the Finnish Film Foundation. In total, we
are presenting 62 projects this year!
A string of 61 projects presented in our previous editions premiered
in 2012. In January, it was our 2009 project Rat King by Petri Kotwica. In February, another Finnish film - the 2010 project Naked
Harbour by Aku Louhimies - followed. March added two projects
to our “completed” list: the 2007 project Lonely Island by Peeter
Simm and our 2009 project People Out There by Aik Karapetian.
A 2010 Baltic Event for East project, In the Fog by Sergei Loznitsa,
premiered in the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival
and won the FIPRESCI Prize in May. Congratulations! Another
2010 project, Purge by Antti Jokinen, premiered in August and was
selected to be Finland’s national Oscar nomination. Included in our
Screenings section this year is Janis Nords’ Mother, I Love You, a
project from our 2007 project slate. We are also happy to inform
you that August Fools by Taru Mäkelä, a project from our first ever
co-production market in 2005, finally went into production this
summer.
tively. Lithuania also brings two projects to Baltic Event 2012 —
Escaping Sunshine by the experienced producer Rasa Miskinyte,
and Breathing into Marble, an adaptation of L. S. Cerniauskaite’s
novel of the same title, which was awarded the European Union
Literature Prize in 2009. From the Nordic countries, we are happy
to introduce The Fencer, a project by the award-winning Finnish
director Klaus Härö, F***ing Swedes, by Ronnie Sandahl, a story
by one of Sweden’s most renowned young authors, produced by
Cinenic Film and Anagram Produktion, and Vergo, the debut for
Icelandic Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir. Central European filmmakers
add All the Best by the producer of the former Baltic Event success Koko and the Ghosts, Ankica Juric Tilic from Croatia, Eastern
Business, a humorous road movie by Romanian producer Iuliana
Tarnovetchi, who is another professional with a string of successes in her filmography, the EAVE-developed project The Tree from
Slovenia, and The Year of Prophecy, a fantasy drama from Poland,
directed by Marcin Ziebinski, whose debut Coupable d’innocence
screened at the Cannes and San Sebastian film festivals. The slate
is rounded out by The Journalist, a project from this year’s focus
country Kazakhstan - an emerging film country with an organized,
high-quality industry, which has co-produced a number of European films in the recent years.
There will also be plenary presentation from Kazakhstan where
four additional works-in-progress will be presented. Other panels
occurring in the framework of BE and B’EST include presentations
on topics like the international market, working with sales agents,
music rights, film marketing, and working with film festivals. European distributors will also sit down for a roundtable discussion
in Tallinn.
I must admit we are a bit overwhelmed at the sheer scale that Baltic Event has achieved. This is evident not only in the growing number of projects, but also in the ever-increasing number of guests.
We will, however, do our best to make your time in Tallinn as efficient and useful as ever, and provide personal care to each and
every one of you as we always have.
Welcome (back) to Tallinn!
Riina Sildos
Managing Director
Baltic Event
But onto this year’s project slate! The BE Co-Production Market
2012 brings 12 projects from 10 countries to your attention. Estonia is represented by two projects — Morten on the Ship of Fools
and The Hoppers — by internationally acclaimed directors Kaspar
Jancis, a European Film Award nominee, and Jaak Kilmi respec-
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Baltic Event
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST - B'EST
POWR
BE SCREENINGS
PRESENTED BY ESTONIAN FILM CLUSTER
TALLINN NOVEMBER 25-28, 2012
PROGRAMME
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27
9:00-16:00
10:00-11:00
11:30-12:30
11:00-16:00
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 25
10:00-13:00
13:00-14:00
14:00-16:00
16:00-19:00
20:00
B'EST Follow-Up Workshop
Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Arcturus
Lunch
Plenary Presentation: the International Market
and Working with Sales Agents by
Frederic Corvez
Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Capella
B'EST Meetings with experts
Nordic Hotel Forum, lobby
Opening Event hosted by POWR and MEDIA
Desks (by invitation only)
Restaurant Platz, Roseni 7
12:30-14:30
16:00-16:30
16:30-18:00
BE SCREENINGS
CC Plaza, A le Coq Suite
10:00-11:30
11:45-13:45
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26
9:00-18:00
10:00-18:00
10:00-11:00
11:00-13:00
12:30-14:30
14:30-19:30
14:30-16:30
16:30-18:00
POWR Workshop Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Vega
Baltic Event Co-Production Market individual
meetings
Plenary Presentation: Music Rights
by Laurence Kaye
Lunch
B'EST Meetings with experts
Plenary Presentation: Producers and
Moviegoers: A Strategic Marketing Plan
by Sarah Calderon
Plenary Presentation: Focus on Kazakhstan,
Works-in-Progress (Kazakhstan)
BE SCREENINGS
10:00-12:00
12:10-13:20
14:00-16:00
16:00-18:00
18:00-19:00
20:00
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Screening 1: Demons (EST)
Screening 2: Pizzas (LAT)
Screening 3: Christmas Uncensored (LIT)
Screening 4: Mushrooming (EST)
Happy Hour hosted by Kazakhfilm
BE Gala Dinner hosted by Finnish Film
Foundation and Baltic Event (by invitation only)
Restaurant Gloria, Müürivahe 2
POWR Workshop
Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Vega
B'EST Projects' Presentation
Plenary Presentation: Working with
Film Festivals by Thessa Mooji
Baltic Event Co-Production Market and B'EST
individual meetings
Lunch
POWR Projects' Presentation
Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Sirius
BE Coming Soon presentation
(works-in-progress)
Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Sirius
14:00-15:40
16:00-18:00
19:15
20:00
Screening 5: All Musicians Are Bastards (EST)
Screening 6: Fortress of Sleeping Butterflies
(LIT)
Screening 7: Narcissus (LIT)
Screening 8: Vanishing Waves (LIT)
Tram ride to Baltic Film and Media School
BE Award Ceremony (by invitation only)
Baltic Film and Media School, Narva Rd 27
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28
10:00-13:00
10:00-11:30
10:00-16:30
13:00-14:30
Baltic Event Co-Production Market, B'EST and
POWR individual meetings
Nordic Hotel Forum, Hall Vega
European Distributors' Roundtable (invitation)
Lunch
BE SCREENINGS
10:00-11:40
12:00-13:30
14:00-16:00
19:00 BE
Screening 9: Mother, I Love You (LAT)
Screening 10: A Lady in Paris (EST, FRA, BEL)
Screening 11: Purge (Estonia, Finland)
Closing Event (by invitation only)
Lounge Shahmatt, Pikk Str 39 (II floor)
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CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. CROATIA
All the Best
Original title: Sve Najbolje
Genre: drama, romantic comedy with singing
Screenwriter: Snjezana Tribuson
Director: Snjezana Tribuson
Producer: Ankica Juric Tilic
Production company: Kinorama
Language: Croatian
Country: Croatia
Budget: 1 201 700 Euros
Financing in place: 54 300 Euros
Partners attached: Croatian Radiotelevision – in negotiations
Goals at BE: looking for co-producers, sales agents
Synopsis
Pre-Christmas time, four lonely people, poisoned gingerbread
cookies. Four destinies, which become happier after some one
hundred minutes of the film.
Pastry-shop worker Verica, opera singer Brankica and Martin
are the protagonists of this film-story about loneliness and search
for love. We will also get to know two nurses who think a lot about
men, a farmer with rather unusual farming talents, a gravely ill
woman of an unusual sexual orientation, a handyman who adores
“pretty women”, and we will watch how an accidental series of
events entwines their destinies and makes unsolvable situations
solvable. It is rather unlikely that several cockroaches, beetroot
soup and an opera aria can play an important role in all that, but in
this story they do.
The lives of our characters run side by side, but the series of
accidental events make them interweave. The favourable circumstance is that Christmas is near and it is the time for reconciliation. The time when everyone wants the best for everyone else.
tivals. Since 2004, Tribuson teaches film and TV directing at the
Academy of Dramatic Art.
Producer
Ankica Juric Tilic studied comparative literature at the Faculty of
Arts in Zagreb, Croatia. Ankica is a 2007 EAVE graduate and a member of ACE 21 and Producers on the Move 2009. After free-lancing
for production companies and TV channels, she founded her own
production company Kinorama 10 years ago. Tilic has produced
more than 15 features, several TV series, documentaries, and short
films. In 2012, she produced the first Kinorama’s drama TV series
to be broadcasted on Croatian Radiotelevision Sunday Morning,
Saturday Evening and two feature films, which are currently in
post-production: Be Quiet, directed by experienced director Lukas
Nola, and the children’s’ film The Mysterious Boy, directed by Drazen Zarkovic. The latter is the sequel to the last year’s box office hit
Koko and the Ghosts.
Production company
Kinorama is a Zagreb-based filmproduction company, which was
founded in 2003. Within the past two years we have produced three
feature films, four shorts and one TV drama series, winning more
than 30 national and international film awards. In 2011, Kinorama
was granted the slate funding support of the MEDIA programme.
At the moment, we are about to release two new features; another eight projects are in development. We have attached some of
the most promising young directors as well as already recognized
Croatian filmmakers to our company. Eager to co-produce, we are
always present at international co-production markets, securing
partners for our own projects as well as looking for interesting others.
Project presented by:
Ankica Juric Tilic, producer
Director’s note
All the Best is a comedy set in the melancholic, holiday time
– Christmas. It is a story about lonely people, in which we will
follow their everyday lives and peek into their intimate problems. They escape the loneliness and find love mainly due to the
web of circumstance, not their own persistence and will.
One of the motives for choosing this subject is summarized by a
character in the film: “There are more lonely people than you may
think.” It is true, and not many of them have ever had a similar experience. We are driven by the fear of loneliness and search for love
and attention, consciously or subconsciously. Loneliness is a typical malaise of our time, but we don’t talk about it enough. It is not
simple, and not often treated with humour, but we have chosen to
do so for its healing effects.
Director
Snjezana Tribuson (1957) graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, specializing in film and TV directing. She has
worked in television since 1981, writing and directing numerous
dramas, documentaries, children shows and educational programs. She has directed three feature films, the last of which, Ne
dao Bog veceg zla, received with several film awards and, screened
in Thessaloniki, Ljubljana, Wiesbaden, and Cairo among other fes-
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Contact
Kinorama
Stoosova 25, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Contact Person / Position: Ankica Juric Tilic / Producer
Phone: +385 1 231 6787
Mobile: +385 98 464476
E-mail: [email protected]
www.kinorama.hr
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. LITHUANIA
Breathing into Marble
Original title: Kvepavimas i Marmura
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Giedre Beinoriute
Director: Giedre Beinoriute
Producer: Dagne Vildziunaite
Production company: Just a moment
Language: Lithuanian
Country: Lithuania
Budget: 800 000 Euros
Partners attached: Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, Monoklis (LT)
Goals at BE: looking for co-production partners and
funding
Synopsis
„It is a story of a family, of man and woman, of longing for something one cannot give another, only resurrect, sharpen; it’s about
unrealized closeness, about the tenderness and burden of the
heart—about life, about something out of earth and light.“ (writer
L. S. Cerniauskaite)
It is a drama about loneliness, a poetic study of the human psyche with detective elements. The protagonist Izabele—a 35-yearold modern, intellectual woman, livies with her husband Liudas in
a homestead near a big city. They are raising a son, Gailius, 8, who
has a case of epilepsy and is smarter than other children his age.
Izabele decides to adopt Ilja—the meanest and most secretive boy
in a foster home. The adaptation of the child to the new family
is difficult. Unexpectedly, Izabele finds out that her husband
is having an affair with her friend, the foster home principal.
Out of vengeance, she returns the boy to the foster home. The
events then take a surprising turn, leading to the tragic end.
the Best Short Film at Cairo International Film Festival for Children
and Youth in 2010.
Filmography (selected, as director and scriptwriter): City
of Trolleybuses (documentary, 28 minutes, 2002); Existence (fiction, 23 minutes, VG studio, 2003); Vulkanovka. After the Grand
Cinéma (documentary, 50 minutes, VG studio, 2005); Grandpa
and Grandma (animated documentary, 30 minutes, VG studio,
2007); The Balcony (fiction, 48 minutes, Monoklis, 2008); An Expert (documentary, 15 minutes, Monoklis, Avantis Promo, 2012);
Conversations on Serious Topics (documentary, 64 minutes, Monoklis, 2012).
Producer
Dagne Vildziunaite is a graduate of EAVE 2012, Ex Oriente 2011,
Eurodoc 2010 and also holds BAs in both Psychology and TV and
Film Management. In 2007, she and her partner established the
production company Just A Moment.
Production company
Just A Moment is a fast-growing Vilnius-based independent production company producing documentary and fiction films. Our
short and documentary films have been selected to festivals such
as Message to Man (RU), Warsaw International Film Festival (PL),
Pärnu Film Festival (EE), Dokubazaar (SI), Nordic Film Days Lübeck (DE), IFF Molodist (UA), Sleepwalkers (EE), and to all the film
festivals held in Lithuania.
Dagne Vildziunaite, producer
Giedre Beinoriute,
screenwriter and director
Director’s note
I’m constantly looking for a bond with another person. Everywhere,
in life, in my creative work, as well as pedagogical. The adaptation
of Breathing into Marble is yet another attempt to answer the
question, how close can you get to somebody? When does closeness become lethal?
The finale of the film does not solve the dilemmas, but only
sharpens the questions and sensitizes certain themes. This is what
I’d like my whole film to be like — giving no answers, but touching
deeply.
Director
Giedre Beinoriute (born 1976) graduated from the Lithuanian
Academy of Music and Theatre, Film and TV department with an
MA in audiovisual arts. Since 2002, she has directed and written seven fiction and documentary films. Since 2007, Beinoriute
teaches scriptwriting and film directing at the Lithuanian Academy
of Music and Theatre. The author’s documentaries Vulkanovka. After the Grand Cinéma and Grandpa and Grandma earned awards
at film festivals in Ukraine, Belorussia, Portugal, Canada, Lithuania,
and were also awarded with Lithuanian Filmmakers Union Premiums in 2005 and 2007. Film The Balcony achieved Silver Crane
2009 award for the Best Short Film in Lithuania and Silver prize for
Contact
Just A Moment
Pylimo 9-13, LT-01118 Vilnius, Lithuania
Contact Person / Position: Dagne Vildziunaite / Producer
Phone: + 370 6868 8980
www.justamoment.lt
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CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. ROMANIA
Eastern Business
Original title: Afacerea Est
Genre: road movie, comedy
Screenwriter: Igor Cobileanski
Director: Igor Cobileanski
Producer: Iuliana Tarnovetchi
Production company: Alien Film
Language: Romanian, lines in Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Georgian
Country: Romania
Financing in place: 30%
Partners attached: CNC Romania, Jelfilm Bulgaria, Adenium Film Romania
Goals at BE: looking for co-producers and an international
sales agent/distributor
Synopsis
Mara and Petro, two friends of 37 and 40, live in a small town in Moldavia. Mara is working on a construction site in stagnation; Petro is
an ex-fiddler, neighbourhood artist, idle to the bone. The utter poverty and lack of perspectives make them think of their own business, which neither of the two know how to formulate, while it’s obvious to both that no matter what they set out for, they need some
initial capital. They begin by deciding to buy 50 000 horseshoes,
which they haven’t got money for, from three Caucasian gangsters,
who deliver the goods in a rail car, which Mara and Petro then “borrow” and sell to pay for the horseshoes. They get into all sorts of
hilarious situations while trying to escape the angry gangsters—
they take the train and get robbed by a thief, get hired as clappers
at election meetings, run a health marathon organized by a small
town hall, sing in the street with an old man they advertise to the
passers-by as Yuri Gagarin’s teacher, end up in a police station
as suspects of the train robbery etc. In the end, all falls into
place: the Caucasians gangsters are arrested and our heroes
manage to sell the horseshoes. With the money earned, they
want to buy a crane in order to start their own business.
Collection of Flavours (2012) short film co-produced by Alien Film,
in post-production.
Producer
Iuliana Tarnovetchi is a film professional whose name has been
linked with over 25 projects along the 18 years that she has been
active in the film industry. The majority of these projects are big international co-productions, which were highly appreciated by both
the public and the professionals, some of them awarded at prestigious festivals. From 1999 until setting up her own production
company in 2011, Iuliana worked for the biggest production houses
in Romania. At the positions of Production Manager, Executive Producer, Producer and Head of Development and Head of Cinema
Department, she handled several international co-productions,
such as: Amen (2000), directed by Costa Gavras; Callas Forever
(2001) by Franco Zeffirelli, Joyeux Noel (2004) by Christian Carion; California Dreamin’ (Endless) (2007) by Cristian Nemescu;
Bora, Bora (2007) by Bogdan Mirica; Collection of Flavours (2012)
by Igor Cobileanski.
Production company
Alien Film, a film production company based in Bucharest, Romania, was founded by a very experienced producer, Iuliana Tarnovetchi, who also acts as Managing Director. The company offers
a wide range of development and production services for local and
international cinema, TV and commercials, including consultancy
and management of film and television productions, and post-production services.
Iuliana Tarnovetchi, producer
Director’s note
Eastern Business is a humoristic treatment of some realities of
the society, human behaviour and interaction, and the authorities
in the Eastern Europe. The film is a comedy with road-movie elements and some drama that takes it to an absurd area. The viewer
will discover a space that struggles between a reality with capitalist
tendencies and a socialist mentality. The action is taking place in
small unknown towns, where everybody knows everybody and the
main goal is to make money. The characters are ordinary people in
a concrete reality.
Director
Igor Cobileanschi is a Moldavian director, who is currently developing his second feature film after several awarded short films
and documentaries: When the Lights Go Out (2006); Sasha, Grisha and Ion (2008) Public’s Award at Trieste Film Fest; Inspiration
(2008) Award for the best Romanian short film at TIFF, Cluj, Romania; Tache (2008) The Silver Chest Prize at the 33rd Golden
Chest International TV Festival; The Unsaved (2011) feature film;
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Contact
Alien Film
27, Theodor Aman St. Bucharest, Romania
Contact Person / Position: Iuliana Tarnovetchi / Producer
Phone: +40 744 659 714
E-mail: iuliana.tarnovetchi@alienfilm.ro
www.alienfilm.ro
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. LITHUANIA
Escaping Sunshine
Original title: Escaping Sunshine
Genre: drama
Screenwriter and director: Allan van O. T. Andersen
Producer: Rasa Miskinyte
Production company: ERA FILM
Language: Lithuanian, Danish, English
Country: Lithuania, Denmark
Partners attached: Bullitt Film, Denmark; script consultant Valeria Richter
Goals at BE: find co-producers from Poland or/and Germany, distributor
Synopsis
Asta (18) and Ingrida (19), two best friends and newly graduates,
decide to spend the summer together before going their separate
ways. When Ingrida’s new boyfriend, Justas (32), suddenly offers
the girls a lift to Copenhagen and work for the summer, it seems
like a dream come true!
The romantic journey through Poland and Denmark is a true
fairytale and Asta falls in love with Justas’ best friend Michael
(32). But the dream ends abruptly in Copenhagen, when Asta is
informed that Ingrida has suddenly run away.
Held captive and forced to work off their debt as a street prostitute, Asta is broken down. Her last hope is waiting for Ingrida’s
rescue—only to discover that her best friend has betrayed her.
Confronted with herself, fake smiles, and promises of sunshine, Asta draws her last chance of escape—Escaping Sunshine!
Escaping Sunshine is based on a real incident, which took
place in Copenhagen in June 2011.
Director’s note
Stumbling upon the incident, on which Escaping Sunshine is
based, I was shocked. Not only that such cruelty takes place in
my home town, and that while it was widely discussed in Danish
media, it wasn’t even mentioned in Lithuanian—though Lithuania
is one of the main transit countries for human trafficking. What
shocked me the most was finding out that trafficking takes place
among the people who know each other—a good friend or family
member may deliberately decide to sell you.
Escaping Sunshine is not a story about human trafficking or
prostitution, but about friendship, betrayal and forgiveness set
around a true incident of human trafficking—what does it take to
sell another human being and how far can, must and should one
forgive?
Visually I wish to separate the two worlds—Lithuania and Denmark. I want to portray the countries in an opposite way of how we
are stereotypically used to seeing them. Instead of having post-Soviet countries looking grey and colourless, the scenes mainly take
place in open spaces: colourful forest, lakes and beaches. Denmark, on the other hand, is mainly depicted in closed spaces: bordello, cars, city streets, basement.
The use of space will follow Asta’s emotional journey and help
us feel her state of mind—from open and happy to claustrophobic
and closed.
The soundscape moves from open, warm, and loving to more
subjective as Asta is mentally broken down. The same I imagine
for the music soundtrack, ranging from diegetic “real music” in
Lithuania to a mix of more non-diegetic subjectivity, when Asta arrives in Denmark and is broken down.
Director bio
Allan van O. T. Andersen was born in Denmark in 1979. In 1999,
he moved to the Netherlands, where he was selected in the first
round to Dutch Academy of Arts as screenwriter and director. He
graduated with honours with a master’s degree in European Media
in 2003. In 2006, he moved to Vilnius, Lithuania, where he currently lives.
Producer
Rasa Miskinyte first graduated with a degree in engineering.
She also holds a master’s degree from Lithuanian Music Academy as producer and graduated from the European Film College
in Denmark. Miskinyte has produced and co-produced several
award-winning documentary and feature films. In 2009, she received the Lithuanian Silver Crane award for Best Lithuanian Producer. Since 2011, she is the Chairman of the Lithuanian Producers’ Association.
Production company
Established in Vilnius in 2001 by the award-winning Lithuanian
producer Rasa Miskinyte, ERA FILM is known for producing successful international creative documentaries and feature films. In
2012, joined by Danish writer and director Allan van O. T. Andersen,
ERA FILM entered a new era with an additional focus on new talent
development and transmedia projects. Throughout the years, ERA
FILM has developed a core expertise in co-productions and line
productions. ERA FILM focuses on creativity, strong stories with a
human impact, and high quality of execution.
Rasa Miskinyte, producer
Allan van O.T. Andersen, screenwriter and director
Andrius Lekavicius, crowdfunding, marketing
Contact
ERA FILM
K. Ladygos 1-119, LT-08235 Vilnius, Lithuania
Contact Person / Position: Rasa Miskinyte / Producer
Phone: +370 6829 6128
E-mail: rasa@erafilm.lt
www.erafilm.lt
11
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. FINLAND
The Fencer
Original title: Miekkalija
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Anna Heinämaa
Director: Klaus Härö
Producers: Kaarle Aho, Kai Nordberg
Production company: Making Movies Oy
Language: Estonian, Russian
Country: Finland, Estonia
Partners attached: Finnish Film Foundation, Allfilm, Estonian Film Institute
Goals at BE: co-producers, sales agents, finance
Synopsis
Fleeing from the secret police, an ambitious young fencer
finds himself teaching small-town children in a godforsaken
spa resort, only to realize that this is exactly what he wants
to do in life.
The Fencer is loosely based on the life story of Endel Nelis
(1925-1993), an Estonian fencer, who started a fencing school in
the small town of Haapsalu in the 1950s.
The story starts in 1952 as Endel arrives in Haapsalu. Fleeing from
the secret police, he has been forced to leave the prestigious Leningrad State University of Sports and take up a position as an ordinary
school teacher. He has no prior experience in teaching, his fencing career is over, and there doesn’t seem to be much in his life to focus on.
He has nightmares about the war, being drafted by the Germans and
hiding in the woods from both the Nazis and the Red Army.
His pupils are nothing like the hand-picked athletes he is used to
working with. These children are a sorry-looking lot, with no proper
clothing for sports, some of them malnourished children of war widows and wives of deported fathers. As part of his duties as a teacher,
Endel organizes a sports club for the school. He ends up teaching
the children the one thing he is passionate about—fencing. This
leads him to an inevitable course of collision with the school’s principal, a cynical bureaucrat, attributing excessive meaning to discipline
and form. When the local Party Committee approves of the fencing
club, the defeated principal starts digging in Endel’s past.
Starting with no proper equipment and with the principal
breathing down his neck, Endel overcomes the obstacles
with his pupils, they make progress and he gradually grows
to care about them. He learns the joy of nurturing others,
making oneself the instrument for somebody else’s growth.
Ultimately, fencing becomes a form a self-expression for the
children and their teacher, a mutual journey, through which
they recuperate and become whole.
The resolution of the story takes place at the all-Soviet Championships between schools, held in Leningrad in the winter of
1953. Haapsalu’s team has prepared for their first tournament for
months, and is eager to participate.
At the tournament, where the children fight their way to the
Championship title, Endel’s past catches up with him. The principal
gives him a choice between walking away or staying with his pupils
and face the threat of being arrested. In the end, Endel is saved by
a crowd of spectators waiting in the lobby to congratulate his team
on their success. The principal chooses to avoid the awkward moment and eventually refrains from turning Endel in. Endel and the
children slip away into the night.
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The credits at the end of the film tell us that Endel Nelis died
in 1993, two years after the Soviet Union fell and Estonia regained
independence. The fencing club he started still exists today.
Director’s note
Rarely, if ever, do I find scripts that fulfil all my expectations, demand to be read, convince me with the fluent writing style and the
skilful and natural way it deals with its subject. The Fencer (Miekkailija) is solid from the beginning to the end and sparkles more
and more towards the end in a way I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. I’m grateful for having found the screenplay and
can’t wait to start working on it!
Director
Klaus Härö (born 1971) is a Finnish film director, who has worked
in both Finland and Sweden. He has directed four feature films
(Letters to Father Jacob, The New Man, Mother of Mine, Elina).
He has won Jussi award in Finland and Ingmar Bergman award in
Sweden.
Producer
Kai Nordberg (born 1968) studied film and journalism in Berlin
before founding Making Movies Oy. He has directed several documentary films and produced five feature films as well as many
short films.
Kaarle Aho (born 1968) has an MA in history from the University of Helsinki. He has worked as producer and shareholder in
Making Movies Oy since 1998. He has produced five feature films
and approximately 50 documentary films and programmes as well
as many short films.
Production company
Making Movies Oy was founded 1996. It has produced more than
50 documentaries, five feature films (including Black Ice
and Rat King by Petri Kotwica) and many short films.
Films produced by Making Movies Oy have been
broadcasted and screened in over 40 countries.
Kai Nordberg, producer
Kaarle Aho, producer
Klaus Härö, director
Contact
Making Movies
Ratalatu 1 b/A 5, 00120 Helsinki, Finland
Contact Person / Position: Kaarle Aho / Producer
Phone: +358 40 725 3936
E-mail: kaarle.aho@mamo.fi
www.mamo.fi
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. SWEDEN
F***ing Swedes
Original title: Svenskjævel
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Ronnie Sandahl
Director: Ronnie Sandahl
Producers: Annika Hellström, Martin Persson
Production company: Cinenic Film, Anagram produktion
Language: Swedish, Norwegian
Country: Sweden, Norway
Partners attached: SFI, NFI, Hummel film, Norway, and
Final Cut, Denmark
Goals at BE: looking for Polish co-producer and TV sales
Synopsis
Just like 60 000 other young Swedes, Dino (23) has fled the mass
unemployment of her home country for a new life in Oslo.
After getting fired, she gets a job as a housekeeper in a home
on the verge of chaos:
Steffen (45), once a professional tennis player in the shadows
of Swedish legends Borg and Wilander, now owns a restaurant
about to go bankrupt. Since his wife left, Steffen is alone with his
two children. His seriously overweight son Kristian (16) is no longer
speaking to him. The family is completely falling apart.
Dino’s arrival changes everything.
A loaded triangular drama forms—with fatal consequences.
F***ing Swedes is a timeless coming-of-age film about love,
betrayal and sacrifice, about those defining choices—what kind of
life to live, and with whom.
And just below the surface lies a bigger story, one of the shifted
power balance between two countries, with Norway—the former
baby brother—suddenly calling the shots.
Director’s note
The thought of placing a young, Swedish contemporary story in
Oslo, I have been carrying with me since the fall of 2009. That was
when I came back to Falköping, the small town where I grew up, and
realized that almost my entire generation had lost their jobs. The
years after the financial crisis, Sweden has suffered the second
highest youth unemployment rate in Europe. The young Swedes
have been forced to move where there are jobs available—to Norway. Our former “baby brother”.
The backdrop for the plot is an extremely actual and current social issue, but even so, I would point out that the film
centres around quite an odd love triangle drama — in which
a father and a teenage son fall in love with the same woman.
Three people in different phases of life, who all feel like
they are stuck, unable to take that next step. As a consequence
of meeting each other, they are forced to make those impossibly
difficult but essential decisions — those of how to live their lives.
And even though this is a drama I think that a filmmaker should
never be afraid to be generous with humour and warmth, no matter
how much darkness a story may contain. Or maybe especially then.
Director
Ronnie Sandahl (27) works as director, author and playwright.
He has been considered one of Sweden’s most renowned young
authors since his breakthrough novel Vi som aldrig sa hora. In the
recent years, Sandahl has mainly focused on directing. His second
short The Route 43 Miracle was selected Locarno Film Festival
2012. F***ing Swedes is his first feature. Alongside directing, Ronnie has a weekly column in Aftonbladet and writes plays for Sweden’s two largest theatres.
Producer
Annika Hellström founded Cinenic Film in 2006. She studied film
in New York in 1987-1991, and trained with EAVE in 2008. Filmography: Mirakel utmed riksväg 43 (The Route 43 Miracle), in competition at Locarno FF 2012; Den bästa utsikten - Hononary award
at Göteborg FF 2011; Lyckliga Jävel (2011); and Får jag lov—till den
sista dansen (2009); and together with Martin Persson: Fyra år till
(2010); Karaokekungen (2009).
Martin Persson, the CEO of Anagram Produktion, has had extensive training with EAVE, ACE and Media Exchange. Persson is the
member of the Swedish Producers Association board since 2001,
head of development and production of film and TV at Tre Vänner
in 1999-2006.
Recent productions: Life’s a Breeze (2012) by Lance Daly,
co-produced with Irish Fastnet Film. Hassel – privatspanarna by
Måns Månsson, Copenhagen DOX and Stockholm FF 2012; Äta,
sova, dö (Eat, Sleep, Die) by Gabriela Pichler, in competition at
Venice FF and TIFF 2012; Starke Man (2011) is nominated for the
Swedish TV’s Kristallen Award for best comedy series; Gynekologen i Askim is nominated for the Swedish TV’s Kristallen Award for
best drama series.
Production company
Anagram Produktion and Cinenic Film have collaborated on
various co-productions since 2008 and aim to create long-lasting
relations with directors and other talent. Anagram is a creative and
visionary production company that has been running a continuous
stream of film, TV and stage productions since 2003. Anagram’s
productions are based primarily on original ideas using
methods ranging from classical to innovative.
Annika Hellström, producer
Ronnie Sandahl, screenwriter
director
and
Contact
Cinenic film
Djupedalsgatan 2, 413 07 Göteborg, Sweden
Contact Person / Position: Annika Hellström / Producer
Phone: + 46 70 786 6416
E-mail: annika@cinenicfilm.se
www.cinenicfilm.se
13
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. ESTONIA
The Hoppers
campfires on the beach, rituals accompanied by song, damsels in
the nude, free love...
It’s important for us to avoid getting bogged down with meaning. The image and ecstasy of the Hoppers is powerful enough in
and of itself. The story around it has to be simple and fast-paced.
And gripping. And playful and humorous too!
Original title: Hüppajad
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Tiit Aleksejev
Director: Jaak Kilmi
Producer: Kiur Aarma
Production company: Traumfabrik
Language: Estonian, Russian, Swedish
Country: Estonia
Budget: 1 288 980 Euros (preliminary)
Financing in place: 32 000 Euros (development support
from Estonian Film Foundation and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia)
Partners attached: Goals at BE: finding co-producers
Director
Synopsis
Producer
August 1913. A boat bringing missionaries who call themselves Jesus’s Matchsticks lands on the island of Hiiumaa, inciting an explosive, religious awakening. Their followers’ eccentric and unbridled
religious rites lead them to be called the Hoppers. At the same
time, a Russian army platoon lands on Hiiumaa with a mission to
fortify the empire’s Western border.
Will the small, windy island become the frontline of the imperial
war or the gateway to heaven? A storm is brewing...
Kiur Aarma (born 1975) graduated Tartu University (majoring in
semiotics and cultural theory) and studied screenwriting at Baltic
Film and Media School master class. He has written and produced
several documentaries and a few short films.
Jaak Kilmi (born 1973) graduated from the Department of Culture of Tallinn Pedagogical University, majoring in directing. He
has (co-)directed and produced a string of award-winning short
films; a number of documentary films and two feature films. His
films have received international recognition and have often been
broadcasted abroad. Since 2001, he teaches film directing at Estonian Art Academy and at the University of Tallinn.
Kiur Aarma, producer
Jaak Kilmi, director
Director’s note
In 1913, Swedish missionaries land on Hiiumaa and lay the
groundwork for an awakening movement. The members are
called the Hoppers because of their strange, ecstatic rituals.
The Hoppers start living by their own laws – “freely”, as they
claim, creating a rift in the island community. Nothing will ever be
the same. The Hoppers is directorially interesting because all of the activity
takes place in a limited space—in one village during the span of one
year. The main character, Taavet, is a 17-year-old boy whose soul
rebels against his predetermined fate. He treads the organ bellows
at church and does the simpler housework in the pastor’s house.
But his soul is ablaze with love for the pastor’s daughter, Anna. This
puts him in opposition to the pastor as well as the Staff Captain
Jegorov, who has taken up residence in the pastor’s house.
At the end of the first third of the film, Taavet is chased from the
pastor’s house. From that moment on, the film becomes a story
of revenge. Taavet exploits the Hoppers’ blind ecstasy to turn the
religious movement against the system represented by the pastor
and the officer.
Our biggest challenge is reconstructing and recreating the religious world of the Hoppers, with their rituals and services, which
will be seen in the evangelical scenes.
So in parallel to a young man’s dramatic revenge story, we will
playfully reconstruct the salvation story (interspersed with Biblical
motifs and plot lines). Though our film is about a religious topic,
our focus is rather on psychosis, its origins and nature. It’s a story
about a revolution that takes place in one, small village community. We watch what happens to people when a religious awakening
suddenly frees them from their culturally imposed shackles. The epic gloominess of the film is contrasted by the summer
of Love—the last such summer before the demise of the old world:
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Contact
Traumfabrik
Müürivahe 17-3, 10140 Tallinn, Estonia
Contact Person / Position: Kiur Aarma / Producer
Phone: +372 565 1560
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. KAZAKHSTAN
The Journalist
Original title: Zhurnalist
Genre: tragicomedy
Screenwriter: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Directors: Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Serik Abishev
Producer: Serik Abishev
Production company: Kazakhfilm JSC, Short Brothers Ltd
Language: Russian
Country: Kazakhstan
Partners attached: Kazakhfilm JSC
Goals at BE: finding co-producer, sales agent, distributors
Synopsis
This is a story about journalist Aben Abuyev who came up with a
mob in Karatas village, called it the Fierce Horse Rustlers and made
everyone believe it was real. Some thought they were criminals,
some believed they were Robin Hoods. Aben’s fabrication became
so popular that in order to create new and sensational TV-stories
he had to actually gather a real mob of rustlers who’d be helping
the simple people.
Director’s note
People need a hero at all times. If there is no hero, they invent one.
Human nature would never eradicate his aspiration towards the
ideals—the faith is always there against the reality. The fictional,
noble Fierce Horse Rustlers turn out to be so popular among the
society that even the unmasking of this journalistic fabrication cannot destroy the faith in the legend.
The main idea of the film is the struggle of the Ideal against the
Reality, between the light of dream and the darkness of commonness. The culture of expressionism with its struggle of light and
darkness will feature in the picture and to enhance this effect, the
colour will be reduced to minimum, almost monochromic. Static,
black-and-white sequences with balanced design are blended
with colourful journalistic inserts—dynamic and shot handheld.
The story unfolds by the flashbacks of eyewitnesses assembled in documentary-style interviews. This is why the
dramaturgic fundamentals justify the combination of two
mutually exclusive stylistics—classic black-and-white cinema and coloured documentary photography.
Most interior episodes will be shot inside a specially built
set because the classical ideas of cinema-expressionism demand
the environment around the protagonist to clearly denominate his
mood and emotions. During the most dramatic moments, when
the protagonist is in danger or facing an inner struggle, the set
design and light-and-shade effects become the major emotional
performance messenger. Slightly deformed walls, enlarged tables,
lower ceilings, lopsided windows etc. will contribute the cinematic
integrity to the graphic sequence.
Director
Adilkhan Yerzhanov (1982) graduated from Kazakh National
Academy of Arts in 2009 as film director, and participated in Damir
Manabay workshop. In 1999, Yerzhanov won the JSC Khabar com-
petition of the Best Screenplay of the first Kazakh animated series
Kozy-Korpesh and Bayan-Sulu, which was broadcasted nationwide in 2002.
Filmography, features: Constructors (2012); Realtor (2011),
awards from a number of festivals. Awarded short films: Karatas
(2009), Disc Seller (2009), Brothers Shorty (2008), Self-portrait
(2007), Bakhytzhamal (2007)
Director, Producer
Serik Abishev (1986) graduated from Kazakh National Academy
of Arts in 2009 as film director, and participated in Damir Manabay
workshop. Abishev has played major and supporting roles in many
films.
Filmography as producer: Constructors (2012) and Realtor
(2011) by Adilkhan Yerzhanov. Filmography as director, awarded
short films: Butter (2009), Honour Keeper (2008), School (2007)
Production companies
Kazakhfilm, founded in 1941, the main film production company
of Kazakhstan, is the largest film studio in Central Asia providing
a full cycle of film production and related services in accordance
with all international quality standards. The company is supported by the Ministry of Culture and state budget. It has a convenient
geographical and territorial location, with favourable climate and
proximity to various scenic landscapes. Kazakhfilm regularly participates in international film festivals and works with the largest
film business platforms in the world. It also has a rapidly growing
experience of co-production with Russia, France, Turkey, USA, Italy, Germany, etc.
Short Brothers. Filmography, features: Constructors (2012),
Realtor (2011). Awarded shorts films: Karatas (2009), Disc
Seller (2009), Brothers Shorty (2008), Self-portrait (2007),
Bakhytzhamal (2007)
Serik Abishev, producer and director
Adilkhan Yerzhanov, director
Contact
Kazakhfilm
176, Al-Farabi Str., 050023 Almaty, Kazakhstan
Contact Person / Position: Olga Khlasheva /
Head of International Relations
Phone: +7 777 804 70 57
www.kazakhfilmstudios.kz
15
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. ESTONIA
Morten on the Ship of Fools
Original title: Morten lollide laeval
Genre: adventure
Screenwriters: Kaspar Jancis, Mike Horelick
Directors: Kaspar Jancis, Riho Unt
Producers: Kerdi Oengo, Andrus Raudsalu
Production company: Nukufilm OÜ
Language: English
Country: Estonia
Financing in place: circa 50%
Partners attached: Bufo OY, Finland
Goals at BE: finding co-production partners, financiers,
broadcasters
Synopsis
Morten is a curious 10-year-old dreamer. His father, Captain Viks
sails his cargo ship The Salamander. Father is Morten’s only family—he tells Morten that his mother became a penguin although it is
clear that she has passed away. Morten is taken care of by his strict
ballet-teacher aunt Anna, who is not a kind surrogate parent but
an evil taskmaster instead. To soothe his bitter days, Morten plays
with his toy boat with bugs as a crew. One fine day the unexpected happens—Morten is shrunk and awakes on his toy boat. He is
thrilled to be a captain. It is not easy since the bugs on the ship resemble adults from his real world. The foul weather is coming and
the ship is sinking. Through crazy and surreal adventures Morten
saves the ship and insects and returns to the real world to happily
reunite with his father.
Director’s note
Morten in the Ship of Fools is a classical stop-motion animation with a S3D effect. The target group for the film are
schoolchildren and grown-ups who value good and universal
children’s culture. I am trying to put different levels into the
script; understanding them makes the film pleasurable for
viewers of any age.
Above all the story has an adventurous and entertaining nature.
I shall try to make the metaphorical burdens as light as possible. In
the majority of the films where insects have been given human behaviour they are still friendly and cute creatures. I am going to try to
be different. The general atmosphere will be more unpleasant than
friendly. This certain dissonance in the development of the story
will bring out the happy end more overwhelmingly.
Mixing a human being and an insect into a hybrid creature will
provide a lot of interesting challenges in designing the characters.
The insects have to be understandable as insects and as humans.
I consider the relative horizon in the ship world to be an interesting
visual goal, too. The action will take place on the ceiling, walls and
floor. This will allow for unusual points of view for a viewer accustomed to the horizontal-vertical paradigm. The unusual perspectives and dislocation of the background system justify the usage of
stereoscopic picture.
Director
Kaspar Jancis has worked at Studio Eesti Joonisfilm as film director since 2002. He also acts at the VAT-Theatre as actor and artist,
16
and is a member of the film and theatre music orchestra The Criminal Elephant.
Filmography as director: Crocodile (2009), Cartoon d’Or
from Cartoon Forum 2010, Hungary, Best Directing diploma from
the 6th European Festival of Animated Films Balkanima 09, Serbia,
Grand Prix from Eksjö International Animation Festival, Sweden,
etc.
Producer
Kerdi Oengo has worked with more than 15 full-length feature
films and a number of short films. For five years, she was employed
by Estonian Film Foundation as a budget and financial reports expert. Since 2004, she works at Nukufilm Studios as producer, production manager, and international relations manager. Oengo has
participated in the production of all stop-animation films produced
by Nukufilm since 2005. In 2013, the feature length S3D animation
Lisa Limone will be released.
Production company
Studio Nukufilm dates back to 1957, when Elbert Tuganov shot
the first animation film Little Peter’s Dream. Nukufilm is the biggest animation (stop motion) studio in Northern Europe for its
size of the studio, technical supplies, and number of employees.
25 people currently work for Nukufilm. We have the workshops for
producing puppets and decorations, including long-time knowhow of different technologies. Nukufilm has produced over 200
different animations and cartoons during its 55 years. In 2007,
Nukufilm produced the first digital stereoscopic stop-motion puppet-film ever—the 5-minute children’s film The Scarecrow.
Kerdi Kuusik-Oengo, producer
Andrus Raudsalu, producer
Madli Võsoberg
Contact
Nukufilm
Niine 11, Tallinn 10414, Estonia
Contact Person / Position: Kerdi Kuusik-Oengo / Producer
Phone: +372 516 3833
E-mail: kerdi@nukufilm.ee
www.nukufilm.ee
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. SLOVENIA
The Tree
Original title: Drevo
Genre: drama
Screenwriters: Sonja Prosenc, Mitja Licen
Director: Sonja Prosenc
Producer: Vlado Bulajic
Production company: Mono o
Language: Slovenian, Albanian
Country: Slovenia
Synopsis
Veli (8) is struggling with his desire to go to the big old tree he sees
through a small hole in a stone wall. The wall surrounds the yard of
the family house and no one can see him peeking through the hole.
Or even worse, climbing the wall. He knows he can never go outside. His older brother Alek and his mother Milena are constantly on their guard against an invisible foe and the air is thick with
menace. Once he sneaks out and his adventure ends up with his
mother Milena getting a surface shotgun wound as she grabs Veli
and brings him back to the house. She hides the wound in front of
the boys. She knows the shot was meant for Veli.
Not long ago the big old tree claimed the life of Alek’s best
friend Dritan, the neighbour’s boy. Dritan fell while racing to climb
high up to the tree crown as they always did. The neighbours blame
Alek for their son’s death and want to avenge it according to the
law of the blood feud. Milena tries to save her sons from the threat,
but the only thing she can do is lock Alek and Veli in the house, the
only place where they are untouchable. As time passes, the shelter
becomes a prison in the middle of a wide open country, with the big
old tree inviting into freedom.
Inevitably Alek’s destiny is more and more connected to the
tree that has set the path of his story. Losing his friend and being
torn away from his young love, Dritan’s sister Liri, Alek also knows
that Veli might finally manage to escape into “freedom” where he
can be killed. He makes a decision. He will become a part of the big
old tree, deeply rooted in the badlands of the country.
Director’s note
The Tree is a chamber piece drama. Even if a big part of the
story takes place outside and in open spaces, the characters are isolated in their destiny. The central image of the
film is the image of characters trapped in the middle of the
wide-open country.
Divided into three parts, every part is built around one of the
characters and has its own visual and sound features that best reveal its essence.
The first part focuses on little Veli. His struggle with the entrapment without knowing the reason for it and his desire for freedom
are shown as a physical struggle with his own emotional experience, through closer shots and exaggerated sound that have their
response in occasional quietness—showing isolation and weariness. The second part is the chronological beginning of the story
and is entitled Milena. We see life as it could have been, but it is deprived of the opportunity after the accident occurs and the feud is
declared against Milena’s sons. Emotional intensity of dynamically
shot scenes is combined with carefully framed stagnant shots as
contemplation and reflection that the given situation of the death
threat demands. The third part focuses on Alek and deals with the
inner conflict of a growing boy, his feeling of guilt that intertwines
with the concern for his younger brother, and his final decision to
end the story his own way. With a more shallow depth of field he is
visually excepted from the background, to focus on his experience
and inner life that after the accident becomes more important and
deep.
Director
Sonja Prosenc graduated from the Cultural Science at the University of Ljubljana with a degree in Journalism and continued to
postgraduate in Communication Science.
In 2008 and 2009, she was selected to Berlinale and Sarajevo Talent Campus, and TorinoFilmLab. In 2011, she was awarded a
grant from the Association of Slovenian Filmmakers. She has written and directed short fiction films and a documentary (The Man
with a Raven, Free Spirited Friends, Morning), written features that
are now in development or pre-production (The Tree, Erik). The
Tree will be her first feature film.
Producer
Vlado Bulajic (born 1977) studied History and Sociology of Culture at Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Ljubljana. For a few years
he’s been working in a film and commercial production in Slovenia
as a freelancer. In 2011 he joined the production company Mono o.
In 2012 he was selected to EAVE with the project The Tree, which
will be his first full feature as a producer.
Production company
Mono o, a production company based in Slovenia, started mainly
as a service company, but has produced its own films since Vlado
Bulajic joined it in 2011. Two have already been completed (documentary A Man with a Raven, and short film Morning). The first
feature film (The Tree) received a production grant from Slovenian
Film Centre and will be completed by the end of 2013. Two new
projects (Erik, Hotel Bonsai) are in development. Mono o
wants to tell stories with a strong personal vision, and
present them to the international audience.
Vlado Bulajic, producer
Contact
Mono o
Kvedrova 36, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Contact Person / Position: Vlado Bulajic / Producer
Phone: +386 40 454 681
www.monoo.si
17
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. ICELAND
Vergo
Original title: Halastjarnan
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Jakob Andersen
Director: Asthildur Kjartansdottir
Producer: Hlin Johannesdottir
Production companies: Vintage Pictures, Nepenthe Film
(Denmark, co-producer)
Language: Icelandic
Country: Iceland, Denmark
Partners attached: Icelandic Film Centre, Icelandic Ministry of Industry, Icelandic National Broadcasting Service
(RUV)
Goals at BE: finding a second co-producer, sales agent/
distributors
Synopsis
Peter is eleven. His mother Maria is in a coma and doctors have given up all hope of her recovery. Atli, Peter’s father, is convinced that
his wife can be cured. He kidnaps Maria from the hospital and takes
her and Peter for a risky journey across the desolated highland of
Iceland in an old Econoline.
Director’s note
Vergo is a moving story, humorous and serious. The beauty of it lies
in the relationship between father and son and how they gradually become closer to each other as their journey progresses.
This is a story I want to share and I know people will like it. The
themes of love, loss, clumsiness and humour are something
everyone can relate to.
The mysticism and connection to the mysterious universe that surrounds us is fascinating as well. The human
race is just a tiny piece of something much larger that we know
nothing about but can’t stop speculating about. We only need to
look at the stars in the sky to feel connected to the universe. There
are people who believe in fairies and ghosts and some even believe
in aliens. Aren’t people finding signs of life on other planets all the
time? If we think about these things it is easier to understand Peter
and Atli.
Style: Everything that happens in the story could happen in
real life. The unrealistic things happen in Peter and Atli’s minds. A
patient in a coma who is not on a ventilator only needs an intravenous drip to survive and could easily endure a two-day car trip. All
astronomy references are factual. Vergo is a dramatic and realistic
film when it comes to the story itself, the surroundings and the set
design. On the other hand, the set and costume design surrounding
the main characters will reflect their personalities and the old-fashioned camper van is a part of that. The journey in the camper van
is a large part of the film, done in a sort of “road movie” style where
the journey itself is more important than the destination.
Director
Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir has worked in the film industry for the
last 25 years. She has wide experience in writing, directing, and
producing all kinds of films and TV programmes. Kjartansdóttir has
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twice been nominated for The Icelandic Film prize (Edda award for
the best documentary) and two of her dramas have been nominated for the DV cultural award in Iceland. She is now developing her
first feature film.
Producer
Hlin Johannesdottir (1973) has been in film production from
2000, mainly acting as associate producer, production manager,
and line producer at Zik Zak Filmworks, the films of which have
won over a hundred international awards. Johannesdottir has
worked on multiple international co-productions and with many
of Iceland’s most successful directors. She established the film
production company Vintage Pictures with Birgitta Bjornsdottir in
2011.
Production company
Vintage Pictures was established in 2011 by producers Hlin Johannesdottir and Birgitta Bjornsdottir.
Johannesdottir had worked at Zik Zak Filmworks, Iceland, for
11 years, during which she either produced, line produced, managed or coordinated over 20 projects. Bjornsdottir graduated as
producer, with distinction, from London Film School in 2010, and
also worked at Zik Zak Filmworks.
Vintage Pictures produced the short film Love Story in 2012,
has two documentaries well under way and three feature films in
late development.
Hlin Johannesdottir, producer
Asthildur Kjartansdottir, director
Contact
Vintage Pictures
Raudagerdi 61, 108 Reykjavik, Iceland
Contact Person / Position: Hlin Johannesdottir / Producer
Phone: +354 6954230
CO-PRODUCTION MARKET. POLAND
The Year of Prophecy
Original title: Córka Czarownic
Genre: fantasy drama
Screenwriter: Agatha Dominik
Director: Marcin Ziebinski
Producer: Lambros Ziotas
Production company: Argomedia Production
Language: English, Polish
Country: Poland, France
Financing in place: 2 185 000 Euros
Partners attached: Polish Film Institute, Platige Image,
Imaginarium, Donten & Lacroix Films s.a.r.l
Goals at BE: complete financing, find co-producer
Synopsis
The Year of Prophecy is a fantasy film with a great visual, emotional
and educational potential. The story is set in a faraway land, where
once reigned peace and prosperity, but which, for centuries now,
has been in the yoke of slavery. It is the year of Prophecy. A teenager, named Elle, is being brought up by three sorceresses. They
have been preparing her since childhood for the difficult task of
liberating the land from Invaders. The sorceresses’ goal is to make
Elle worthy of her destiny as the Liberator. But she’s rebellious and
irresponsible. Her immaturity leads to many dangerous situations,
which jeopardize the only chance of liberating the kingdom from
the cruel reign. Her vast knowledge and wisdom are not enough to
make her the Liberator. She also needs to develop a capacity for
love and faith in humanity—qualities which the soulless sorceresses were not able to teach her. Our heroine must find these truths by
herself, in order to fulfil her destiny.
Director’s note
The main thing that entices me in the plot of The Year
of Prophecy is the striking and surprising approach to
the protagonist—Elle. This maturing girl, whose destiny
is to liberate her country and defeat the Invaders, is in
a fight against evil. Yet, to overcome evil and its agents
does not mean fighting them directly. The heroine must
recognize and overcome aspects of evil in herself. Only then
can she fulfil the prophecy. In this manner, as she wanders in
the kingdom ruled by the Invaders, in unceasing fear, surrounded
by uncertainty, we feel that the story is leading her, and us, from a
point where we start asking who we really are, to where we must
choose who we will become. We are amazed not just by Elle’s and
her magical patronesses’ adventures, but also by the spiritual
breadth of the story, its simplicity and consistency.
My main objective in the creation of The Year of Prophecy is to
preserve its greatest asset, which is the diversity of levels in its story. I am convinced that bringing this tale to the screen will not only
demonstrate this diversity, but also, through the power of beautiful
imagery, strengthen and emphasize its educational, humoristic,
emotional, and ethical values. Based on the eternal struggle of
good and evil, or rather of the threat of evil against good, the script
of The Year of Prophecy weaves a powerful emotional charge with
the swift action.
Director
Director Marcin Ziebinski’s 1983 short film Klucz do… gathered
awards from more than 20 festivals in Poland and abroad. In 1991,
he directed his first feature film, the costume drama Coupable
d’Innocence, a Polish-French co-production. In 1992, it received
the Best Debut Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival. It was
officially screened at the Cannes Film Festival, and at the ‘92 Montreal World Film Festival. At the same time, Ziebinski made the
first TV commercials in post-Communist Poland, and has to date
directed around 700, specializing in the use of special effects and
technologically complex ideas and solutions. His feature thriller
Anger starred leading Polish film actors. In 2001, he directed the
TV film Siedem dalekich rejsow, adapted from a novel by Leopold
Tyrmand. In 2002, Ziebinski began working on the big budget independent action-comedy Dublerzy. The film became the number
two box office hit of the summer 2006, after Pirates of the Caribbean. In 2009, he began to write The Year of Prophecy.
Producer
Lambros Ziotas, filmography: Papusza (2013, feature film), Daas
(2011, feature film), Szklane domy pani zosi (2011, documentary),
Afonia i pszczoły (2009, feature film), Fundacja (2006, feature
film), Ojdadana (1996, short film)
Production company
Argomedia Production was founded in 1996 by the film director
and producer Lambros Ziotas. The company has already created
a few dozen short and feature-length films, TV theatre productions
and TV series. The company is actively supporting young Polish
filmmaking talent in finding financing, as well as directing and producing short and feature-length films.
Marcin Ziebinski, director
Ole Wendorff-Østergaard, co-producer (Platige Image)
Katarzyna Kmiecik, coordinator
Contact
Argomedia
ul. Górno l ska 16 m 15, 00-432 Warszawa, Poland
Contact Person / Position: Marcin Ziebinski / Director
Phone: +48 508 069 774
E-mail: offi[email protected]
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EAVE is a professional training, project development
and networking organisation for audiovisual producers.
Working with a worldwide network of partners we
are involved in programmes for producers in Europe,
Russia, Latin America, the Arab world and Asia.
www.eave.org
EAVE 238c rue de Luxembourg L-8077 Bertrange
Tel.: +352 44 52 10 1 Fax: +352 44 52 10 70
[email protected] www.eave.org
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / FINLAND
Finka
Original title: Finka
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Reetta Aalto
Director: Reetta Aalto
Producer: Liisa Juntunen
Production company: napafilms ltd.
Language: Russian, Finnish, English
Country of production: Finland
Country of filming: Russia
Partners attached: Finnish Film Fund (SES)
Goals at BE: (Scandinavian) TV-sales / distribution
Synopsis
Having spent a month in St. Petersburg participating in entrance
exams for a theatre school and partying with other expats, a Finnish girl Riina, 20, thinks she knows it all. Everything changes when
she gets stuck in Russia over a weekend without a passport or
friends. Flung back and forth between a cute and child-like local
boy of her age (Petya) and a Russian expat-millionaire from New
York (Dandy), Riina leaves her protected expat student life behind
and plunges into this confusing metropolis of contradictions. When
she finds out that Petya is in trouble and in desperate need for
money, she decides to take a shady work assignment from Dandy.
But the world is not to be her oyster, as she is soon forced to realize
that she has put not only herself, but also Petya, in great danger.
Director’s note
St. Petersburg is a city of contradictions: it is rich, yet poor,
beautiful, yet ugly and as such—a great set for drama. I spent
several years there in my early twenties clashing with the
scenery and formed a strong love-hate relationship with the
city. With this film I want to share my experience of the diversity
and different layers of this fascinating metropolis.
The film Finka takes place during white nights, when the city is
packed with tourists, nights bathe in pink light and the fluffy pollen
of willow trees float in the air. Its people all live in the moment, like
there is no tomorrow. The heroine, Riina, is a reckless and arrogant
Western girl, who faces her helplessness when a foreign culture
puts her taste for adventure and illusion of omnipotence to the
test. At the end she learns to appreciate the things she has earlier
taken for granted: people’s caring for her, freedom to come and go,
and a home to return to.
Finka shows contemporary Russia from a grassroot level, albeit through the eyes of a Westerner. It is a film for everyone who has
ever looked further than their own back yard.
Director
Reetta Aalto (born 1976) is a Helsinki-based filmmaker, who
writes and directs both fiction and documentary films. Her previous works include the TV-miniseries Paradise (written by Kirsikka Saari, Finnish broadcasting company/YLE Draama 2010), the
short films Girls’ Night (written by Kirsikka Saari, Making Movies
2008) and To Live, to Exist (UIAH/ELO 2007) and the documentary Guardian Angel (Aalto University/ELO 2010).
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To Live, to Exist was awarded the prize for the best student film
at the Tampere International Film Festival and was selected to the
Nordic educational project Norden i bio 2008/09.
Girls’ Night received a resource prize and was chosen as the
audience’s favourite at the Tampere International Film Festival.
The film was a great success on TV as well, receiving good reviews
and over half a million viewers. It was later nominated for the best
Finnish drama for the Kultainen TV-award (the Finnish Emmys).
The TV-miniseries Paradise was a nominee for Prix Europa
2010 in the TV fiction category.
Reetta Aalto has a BA degree from the University of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS) and an MA degree from Helsinki
University, majoring in Russian Language and Literature. She has
also studied theatre directing in St. Petersburg State Academy for
Theatre Arts and film directing at Deboshir Studio, a private film
school in St. Petersburg.
Producer
Liisa Juntunen set up napafilms ltd. in 2009. She had previously held numerous positions in a number of companies within film
production and marketing in Finland. Lately she has produced
one-off documentaries and is constantly looking for international
collaborations.
Production company
napafilms ltd is a fresh and curious Helsinki-based production
company established in 2009 by Liisa Juntunen. Napafilms is
a known base for young and up-coming talents and has
open mind and creative attitude towards filmmaking
and life over all. Let’s have fun!
Liisa Juntunen, producer
Contact
napafilms
Vanha Talvitie 1, 00580 Helsinki, Finland
Contact Person / Position: Liisa Juntunen / Producer
Phone: +358 41 5367636
E-mail: liisa@napafilms.fi
www.napafilms.fi
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / RUSSIA
The General
Original title: General
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Bakur Bakuradze
Director: Bakur Bakuradze
Producer: Julia Mishkinene
Production company: Vita Aktiva
Language: Russian
Country: Russia
Financing in place: 200 000 Euros private financing confirmed, 25 000 Euros for development from MDM fund
Partners attached: ma.ja.de. (Germany)
Goals at BE: looking for Serbian producer; looking for
co-producer, sales agent and distributor
Synopsis
The film revolves around the last year of a Balkan war general, just
before his arrest and surrender to the Hague tribunal.
The general of the Balkan war, who has hidden from the Tribunal in
the basements of a closed base for ten years, is secretly transported to the mountains due to his deteriorating health. His destination
is a detached house on the outskirts of the village, which belongs
to an old man called Slavko.
We see a former hero, now pursued as a criminal, gradually
building relationships with the new reality and generations. Watching TV, he begins to discover the people’s attitude towards him. He
secretly meets his son; reflects on committing suicide. Runs from
the village to the capital to visit his daughter grave, works at a construction site and lives in a trailer with other workers, tries to flee
the country, suffers a stroke, and comes back to life.
The general often sees delirious war scenes in his dreams:
bombing, refugees, dead children. During the war, he could have
died a dozen times, he narrowly escaped death and yet again it
hasn’t taken him. He has to face his past, rethink it daily, without
any hope to return, fix, or explain anything. For some reason,
fate forces him to live.
The film ends with the general’s arrest. This time he doesn’t
resist and quietly gives himself to the judgment of society.
award in the short-film section at Kinotavr, his feature film Shultes
screened at Cannes Film Festival (Quinzaine des Realisateurs) and
Kiev Molodist International Film Festival, and won the Grand Prix
at Kinotavr in Sochi; The Hunter screened at Un certain regard of
Cannes Film Festival, won awards for Best Directing and Best Actress at Kinotavr, and the Grand Prix at Minsk Film Festival.
Producer
Julia Mishkinene graduated from the Moscow State University
with a PhD in philosophical studies. In 2005, she founded the Institute of Communications Vita Aktiva, which she has headed ever
since. Mishkinene has produced more then 10 documentaries,
short and feature films. In 2009, she graduated from the EURODOC tutorial and took part of the MINI EAVE Moscow workshop.
Production company
Founded in 2005, Vita Aktiva (till 2011 – the part of Salvador D
group) is a full circle production company managed by Julia Mishkinene. 2007 – Moscow (by Bakur Bakuradze, awarded at Kinotavr,
participant of many international film festivals); 2008 – Shultes
(by Bakur Bakuradze, Quinzaine des realisateurs in Cannes, the
Main Prize at Kinotavr and Grand Prix at Kiev film festival Molodist,
shown at London, Lisbon, Montreal, Thessaloniki, and many other film festivals); 2011 – The Hunter (Un certain regard in Cannes,
Best Directing and Best Actress at Kinotavr, Grand Prix in Minsk
and Split), Milana (documentary by Madina Mustafina, Main Prize
of ArtDucFest Moscow, participant of Doc Leipzig); 2012 – Entropy
(feature by Maria Saakyan, premiered in Vyborg at “Window to Europe”), Marina House (documentary by Dali Rust, in co-production
with Justamoment). The Finnish documentary Russian Libertine,
for which Vita Aktiva provided production services, was
released in 2012. The film Intimate Parts (by Natasha
Merkulova and Alexey Chupov) is in post-production.
Julia Mishkinene, producer
Director’s note
We want to make an existential drama-reconstruction, revolving
around a military man, the general who has assumed the role of
a leader and ended up on the other side of history and law—in an
unnatural state of isolation and inactivity.
We will try to understand the consequences of such downtime for
a man—whether it leads to despondency, reflection and rethinking
of the offence, or repentance.
Triumph and tribunal are the turning points of a soldier’s life. In this
case, the triumph is in the past. Tribunal is ahead. This very period,
the waiting time between the two events, is crucial to understand
this man.
Director
Bakur Bakuradze (born in 1969, Tbilisi) studied under Marlen
Khutsiev at the Directors Program of the Russian State Institute
of Cinematography (VGIK). His short film Moscow earned an
Contact
Vita Aktiva
Lyusinovskaya Str., 36/1. 31, 115093 Moscow, Russia
Contact Person / Position: Julia Mishkinene / Producer
Phone: +7 903 798 4095
www.vita-aktiva.ru
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BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / GERMANY
Good-bye
Original title: Poka
Genre: romantic comedy
Screenwriters: Anna Hoffmann, Oliver Haller
Director: Anna Hoffmann
Producer: Stephan Grobe
Production company: Jolle-Film
Languages: Russian, German
Countries: Germany, Kazakhstan
Partners attached: ZDF, MFG
Goals at BE: 500 000 Euros
Synopsis
Good-bye is a love story set in the milieu of the Russian-Germans
during the year of 1990. In these turbulent times, a wave of socalled ethnic Germans are moving back to Germany, and Georg
and Lena are fighting for their love. He is a German, shortly about
to leave for his homeland, and she is a communist’s daughter. And
she is pregnant...
Director’s note
Good-bye is a romantic story about Russian Germans, who survived in Stalin’s GULAG, and their children who lived in Kazakhstan
and Siberia. Since I’m a German, who came to Germany from Kazakhstan, this is a very personal story for me. And I’m looking forward to telling it.
Georg and Lena’s fate, the couple who rebelled against
the traditional patriarchal principles. It’s also a touching drama about the Russian German and his loss of values and
principles in Germany. The story takes lace in 1990, there is
“Glasnost” in the USSR, Germany unites. There is a wave of
Russian German emigrants in Kazakhstan. In these turbulent
times Georg and Lena are trying to get closer without losing
themselves. Since the story takes place more than 20 years ago, I
can tell about it with humour.
Nowadays there are more than 5 million people with Russian
immigrant background living Germany. Most of them have German roots, but some of them came because of marriage, like Lena.
Their integration was very successful, but not easy. “To adapt but
not attract attention”—this is still the motto of the Russian immigrants. It lead to the fact that Russian Germans are invisible in
German cultural, media and political space. In spite of the fact that
I’ve been living in Germany for 20 years, I couldn’t find any German-Russian politician, TV-host, pop-singer etc. This story is about
who we are and where we come from. The language game is very
interesting for me as well—the mixture of German and Russian
languages is very typical for the immigrants. They use it as slang. I
think, this slang will enrich the movie. Dominik Graf’s In Face of the
Crime is a great example for me in this context. That’s why it has a
great DVD-success among Russian-Germans.
Director
Anna Hoffmann is a Kazakhstan-born German who has lived in
Germany since 1990. She studied film and theatre at the Free University of Berlin, and directing at the Film Academy Baden-Wuert-
24
temberg, specializing in documentary film. Since then, Hoffmann
has worked as writer and director of a number of shorts and documentaries. Won the Kazakh Film Award in 2007, Russia German
Cultural Award of Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2008, Caligari Award.
In 2009, received the Diploma for the documentary film The Maid,
Lola—German Short Film Award (Special Award), Horizons Price
Five Lakes Film Festival 2010. Good-bye is her feature debut.
Producer
Stephan Grobe was born 1976 in Sömmerda, Thüringen (Germany). 1996-98 he moved to Tel Aviv (Israel) in order to work for the
Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP). 1998-2001 back
in Germany, he followed the studies of theology at the Humboldt
University in Berlin. 2001/02 he spent a year in Vienna (Austria).
2002-07 studies at the German film school Filmakademie
Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, majoring in producing. Since
2007 he works as a freelance producer.
Production company
Jolle-Film is a young start-up company, which was founded in
2009 by Stephan Grobe. The office is located in Ludwigsburg,
Germany. He studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.
The main goal of the company is to produce German and European films for theatrical distribution and television. The emphasis of
their story development lies in Art house films as well as the buildup of young talents and their establishment on the market. Next to
their own productions, Jolle-Film offers production service as
calculations, production management, VFX producing,
line producing, and production coordination.
Stephan Grobe, producer
Contact
Jolle Film
Alleenstrasse 2, 71638 Ludwigsburg, Germany
Contact Person / Position: Stephan Grobe / Producer
Phone: +49 7141 309 8613
E-mail: s.grobe@jolle-film.com
www.jolle-film.com
Hogweed
Original title: Borshevik (Борщевик)
Genre: apocalyptic action horror
Screenwriters: Tikhon Kornev, Artyom Aksenenko
Director: TBC
Producer: Daniel Goroshko, Sergey Selyanov
Production company: CTB Film Company
Language: English
Country: Russia
Goals at BE: finding co-production partners, sales agent
Synopsis
Two noxious, destructive and ubiquitous life forms threaten to destroy the world – but no one knows, which will succeed – humanity
or HOGWEED.
Pyotr, an EMERCOM officer, disappears under mysterious circumstances while putting out a wildfire, leaving behind his wife,
Kira, and little daughter, Alyona. What follows is a series of inexplicable events: people disappear, a contagious disease breaks out,
causing sores and burns all over the body… Entire towns are covered with clouds of a strange pollen, wiping out all the inhabitants.
People start to flee in panic…
No one recalls the experiment on a new species of hogweed
by Professor Uspenski—Pyotr’s grandfather—which he began
years before but was forced to abandon by the secret police.
Kira doesn’t know that her husband was part of a top-secret
squad that had been trying to contain the spread of the dangerous plant for more than ten years.
Marlov, an EMERCOM Colonel, heads a rescue operation
into the heart of a hogweed field to save Pyotr, and invites Kira
to participate. When they find Pyotr, it turns out that he had become part of the plant that is set to conquer the world and eliminate all other life forms. No one can stop the plant, or change its
(now) omnipresent mind, except Alyona, Pyotr and Kira’s daughter. At the end, the child saves the world. Or does she?
co-production projects including Russian Ark, Father and Son,
The Sun by Alexander Sokurov, Polumgla by Artem Antonov. In
2008, Goroshko founded A-One Films, which is still the only distribution company in St. Petersburg. In three years, the company released theatrically more than 30 feature films and several
short film compilations (including such films as Milk of Sorrow,
Chico&Rita, Amador, Habemus Papam, Le Skylab), launched its
own video-label and straightened its position in a Russian market
as one of the youngest but the most promising and innovative distribution companies. In August 2012, Goroshko joined CTB Film
Company (one of the oldest and biggest production houses in Russia), where he is responsible for producing international projects.
Production company
The CTB Film Company, with offices in St. Petersburg and Moscow, is one of Russia’s most prolific and successful producers of
theatrical motion pictures. Founded in 1992, CTB has released
more than sixty feature films in a whole range of styles unmatched
in Russian production, from action, drama, and comedy to animation, auteur, and feature debuts. In 2007, CTB’s film The Mongol was nominated for an Oscar. Since 2010, CTB Film Company
has been rated as one of Russia’s seven major filmmakers with
an annual budget of federal funding. In winter 2012, the CTB’s
animated feature Ivan Tsarevitch and the Grey Wolf grossed over
$ 20 500 000 in domestic theatrical release.
Daniel Goroshko, producer
Producer’s note
Hogweed is an action horror film with a twist, shot using a mixture
of innovative and classic techniques. Think Robert Rodriguez’s
Planet Terror meets George A. Romero’s iconic films, such as Night
of the Living Dead and the rest of his “Dead Series”. Other references to visual and creative concept of the project are films such as
Cloverfield, Planet Terror, The Birds.
While it is a horror film, Hogweed is not without a small touch
of self-irony. Replete with breathtaking, hair-raising killer-plant
scenes, flashbacks, and narrow escapes, it also incorporates contemporary social commentary.
Hogweed ends with a Tarkovskian question, visually and psychologically. Is the world really saved? Or was it all in the little girl’s
imagination? Are we capable of preserving the fragile planet? Will
our children be able to take over the world they inherit from us?
Producer
Daniel Goroshko studied law in St. Petersburg State University and Free University Berlin. After graduation in 2001, he started doing legal and business affairs for numerous international
Contact
CBT Film Company
Kamenoostrovsky 10, 197101 St. Petersburg, Russia
Contact Person / Position: Daniel Goroshko / Producer
Phone: +7 911 188 3970
www.ctb.ru
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BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / GEORGIA
House of Others
Original title: Skhivsi sakli
Genre: drama
Screenwriters: David Chubinishvili, Rusudan Glurjidze
Director: Rusudan Glurjidze
Producers: Zurab Magalashvili, Rusudan Glurjidze
Production company: Cinetech Film Production
Languages: Georgian, Russian
Country: Georgia
Partners attached: Kinoskopik (Spain)
Synopsis
The Caucasus in the 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR.
A downpour. A decrepit military vehicle covered in mud creeps up
the rain-washed, bumpy road. In the distance, a village appears
with its scattered houses spread along the flank of a hill. Not a
single living soul can be seen through the barren fences, deserted
yards and cross-shaped nailed windows. The car staggers along
the uninhabited village road and stops next to one of the houses.
This house had belonged to someone, but was abandoned within
an hour one night, just like all the others. People left the village in
fear. Driven by the instinct to survive, everything was left as it was,
only the cattle were driven away.
The driver, a forty-year-old military man, who was been awarded the ownership of that village after the war, brings a family of
dejected citizens to one of the houses. A family who had lost their
dwelling due to armed clashes. A new life has to start in that house
where twilight sheds its sepulchral glow over the frozen rooms, the
bleak village roads, the deserted cemetery, and the booby-trapped
citrus plantations growing wild.
The fertile land stands in stark contrast to the absence of the
people who once lived here. Finally, the new inhabitants have to decide whether to stay or leave.
Director’s note
I belong to the 1990s with the memories lit by the glimmering light
of the lamp. I remember the strange emotions of the war period,
how armed hostilities ended in Abkhazia in 1993, and the calm.
That is when a continuous flow of refugees headed for the
frozen capital wrapped in darkness. One of the families
found shelter in my house. They endured the situation with
endless generosity, tolerance and determination, in spite
of the recent collapse of their ordered world. In the space
of one day, they had lost their roots, a part of their soul.
Leaving home, they had been sure to return within weeks,
but twenty years have passed and they are still waiting.
The ascetic style of narration in the script will be thoroughly preserved in the film. I want to reach a laconic and severe expressiveness with leisured plasticity of traveling shots, fixing on the heroes
and details which are stylistically characteristic for social realism. I
want the film to commit to ambiguity more than clarity, with many
question marks, which will increase the overall sense of mystery
pervading the story.
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Director
Rusudan Glurjidze (born in 1972, Georgia). She has studied
French Language and Literature at Tbilisi State University, and
Film Directing and Scriptwriting in George Shengelaias’ class at
Georgian State Film and Theatre Institute. She has worked in advertising and national television, shooting numerous musical and
commercial clips. Since 2007, she has been an AD and producer
at Cinetech Film Production. Rusudan’s films have successfully
screened at Göteborg, Drama, Molodist, Cottbus, etc. Her project
House of Others won the script development competition at the
Georgian National Film Center.
Producer
Zurab Magalashvili (born in 1967, Georgia) graduated from Georgian State Film and Theatre Institute and has acted in about 20
fiction films. He debuted as producer and founded his first production company Young Cinema Promotion Fund in 1993. Magalashvili
has to date produced numerous fiction and documentary films
and commercial clips. In 2000, he founded CIFA—Caucasus International Festival of Advertisement. Since 2006, he is the Director
General and main producer of CINETECH Film Production.
Filmography: Dzma (Bother, 2012, Georgia, France) in
pre-production; Chaika (2011, Georgia, Spain, Russia) Official
Selection of San Sebastian IFF 2012 – New Directors; Khorosho
(2010, Georgia, Spain), won numerous prizes; Farewell to Arms
(2010, Georgia), consists of five shorts, awarded at more than 70
international film festivals; Ori (2009, Georgia, Spain).
Production company
Cinetech Film Production is one of the most dynamically developing independent film production companies in Georgia. It was
founded in 2006 as a result of a merger of several successful production studios, specializing in audio, film and video production,
together with administrative organizations of the film sector, who
aim to produce and co-produce the work of independent filmmakers.
The main objective of Cinetech Film Production is to promote
the development of new Georgian film projects, to
establish business relations with foreign partners and to scout interesting projects for
co-production.
Zurab Magalashvili, producer
Rusudan Glurjidze, producer and
director
Contact
Cinetech Film Production
2 Brother Kakabadze str, 0108 Tbilisi, Georgia
Contact Person / Position: Zurab Magalashvili / Producer,
Rusudan Glurjidze / Director, Producer
Phone: +995 32 292 0143, +995 59 770 4400
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / ARMENIA
Lucid Space
Original title: Lusavor Shrjan
Genre: drama
Screenwriters: Hovhannes Galstyan, Marine Zakaryan
Director: Hovhannes Galstyan
Producers: Hovhannes Galstyan, Gevorg Gevorgyan, Knut
Skoglund
Production company: Parallels Filmproduction Llc.
Language: Armenian
Countries: Armenia, Norway
in progress: 237 000 Euros
Partners attached: Parallels Film-production Llc. (rightsholder), Pomor Film AS (Norwegian co-producer), National Cinema Centre of Armenia (state support), Paradise
ltd (local distributor), Armenia TV (local TV rights)
Goals at BE: Cooperation with the European film industry representatives to submit the project to the local and
global European foundations. We plan to rent equipment,
lab services and sound mix in Europe to provide advanced
technical quality. And we hope to use the possibilities of BE
for the representation of the film materials to the European sales agents and distributors.
Synopsis
Deciding to conceive from another donor, 42-year-old oncologist Marie provokes her husband Gabriel’s (45) infidelity
with the dancer Janet (25). The consequent pregnancy reveals Janet’s cancer. While Marie starts fighting for Janet’s
pregnancy, initially unaware of the link to her husband, she
is inexorably drawn into in a love triangle.
tween them are probably more vulnerable than new lovers, if their
relationship is deprived of mutual care.
The film’s internal drama will be heightened by the juxtaposition of the restrained, ascetic, object-free, schematic hospital
atmosphere with the contemporary urban culture: cafe, bar, and
nightclub. The light and colour expression of the ballet will form
the background, on which, with an abundance of close-ups, the
characters’ straightforward and appropriate encounters will be
conducted.
Director / Producer
Hovhannes Galstyan was born in 1969 in Yerevan, Armenia. He
graduated from the film directors department of Armenian State
Pedagogical Institute. Worked at the Private Look Studio Ltd. as
CEO from 1999 to 2003. In 2005, Galstyan established Parallels
Film Production Llc. independent film company. He is currently working on his 2nd feature “Lucid Space” as well as acting as
co-producer in different international film projects.
Filmography: Lucid Space 2014 (pre-production), The Half
Moon Bay 2013, (production), Lost Birds 2014, Turkey, Armenia
(development), Bonded Parallels 2009, Our Child is Growing 2001,
I Dare to Remember, 1993 Graduate work
Production company
Parallels Film, an independent film company based in Yerevan, Armenia, was established in 2005 for production of short and feature
film projects. In 2012, the company started offering a range
of services for shooting feature films, commercials, music videos, short films, and documentaries in Armenia.
Hovhannes Galstyan, producer
Director’s note
The heroes of the film: the married couple Marie and Gabriel, with
the young dancer Janet, are tied in a love triangle. To all appearances, it is provoked by Marie’s conviction that a child will fill out their
marriage, if she manages to get pregnant from another donor. Marie’s one-sided decision brings their relationship to a deep crisis.
Both become vulnerable to the apparently healthy young dancer,
whose pregnancy forces each of the three characters to face their
own demons—and possibilities for rebirth. Janet leaves the child
with the couple, and goes away to Europe—maybe to continue her
education, maybe to get treatment for her illness or maybe perish… Everything seems fine but in reality all three remain in the Lucid Space and we cannot be sure that the disease will spare them.
For Gabriel and Marie, this is the moment of truth, the opportunity
of a quiet break before the final decision.
Lucid space is a medical term, used in cases of diseases considered incurable, when the organism regains control over the illness, and its development stops. Like a living organism, I see that a
relationship is permanently subject to the attacks of antibodies. As
a well-tended garden adjoining a house may wither within a number of days, because of its inability to fight diseases or absence of
care, a relationship can similarly collapse because of half-truth,
distrust. The spouses who have decades of life experience be-
Contact
Parallels Filmproduction Llc.
43 Pushkin Str, 2, Yerevan 02 Armenia
Contact Person / Position: Hovhannes Galstyan / CEO
Phone: +374 010 635 935; Mob: +374 091 207284
E-mail: hgalstyan@parallelsfilm.com
www.parallelsfilm.com
27
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / LATVIA
Mellow Mud
Original title: Es Esmu Šeit
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Renars Vimba
Director: Renars Vimba
Producers: Aija Berzina, Alise Gelze
Production companies: Tasse Film, SIA,
Language: Latvian
Countries: Latvia, Iceland, Great Britain
Financing in place: 69 496 Euros (Media, State Culture
Fund of Latvia)
Partners attached: Vintage Films, Apis Films
Goals at BE: co-producers, particularly from Ireland, Germany or Great Britain, distributors, sales agent
Synopsis
After their father’s death and having been abandoned by their
mother, siblings Roby and Raya are left alone in their small family
house in the countryside. Things change when their dominating
grandmother suddenly dies. The teenagers have to face a tough
choice: either to report the death of their grandmother and
submit themselves to being taken to an orphanage or to hide the
dead body and pretend as if nothing has happened.
Director’s note
While drinking my morning tea, I’m going through the photos from
my summer trip through the villages near the border of Russia.
Here they are – a brother and sister in front of their house. And
grandfather is taking care of them because their parents are
abroad.
These photos remind me of things I have seen in the neighbourhood of my family country house – reckless deforestation,
land sold to foreigners, myopia and an absolute lack of susceptibility. At the same time, rural people’s sincerity and the priceless natural beauty - we still have it, but we are in danger of losing it as well.
Coming back to the photos of the brother and sister. What do
they do now – right at this moment? And what it’s like – to be there
– in the countryside, when the parents are gone? And anyway –
why we are talking so much about people who have left, but never
about the ones who have been left behind.
With anxiety in my nerves, the first draft ideas for the
script come into my mind. The story about “the ones who
have stayed”, the ones who don’t give up and are ready
to protect what is precious and essential for them. Risk
and daring, loyalty and betrayal, hope and love, a lie and a
corpse in the backyard – it all has its place in the film about
the young girl Raya, who is forced to step into her parents’
shoes and take their place.
The film indirectly addresses several topics, but the main emphasis is put on the moral aspects of responsibility and obligation.
The responsibility to yourself and your dreams, responsibility to
the family and your state – this is what we see in the main character Raya and her younger brother Roby’s absentee mother relationship. It highlights the question of morality in a situation where
only ethically ambiguous or illegal behavior can seemingly guarantee the freedom of their dreams.
After all, Mellow Mud is a story about Raya’s growing up and
28
discovering the darker side of her personality, her self-awareness
and taking a conscious decision to live differently.
The events portrayed in the film take place in the countryside
and its rich texture is an important part of the movie. Overall, the
emotional tone of the film should evoke a harsh, but life-affirming
feeling.
The scenes, perspectives, angles and camera movement
should reveal the tense and dynamic life of our heroes. At the same
time, the camera will be intimate and reveal nuanced feelings of
the main characters.
Director
After his Cinematography studies at the Latvian Academy of
Culture, Renars Vimba became an active figure in film scene of
Latvia and has since broadened his career into film directing. In
2006, he attended the Masters’ programme in Film Directing at
the Baltic Film and Media School (Estonia), led by professor Boris
Frumin (US), and, in 2011, he graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture in Film Directing and Audiovisual Arts. His fiction
shorts Daddy Doll (2008) and The Breakwater (2009) clearly
show Renars Vimba’s talent for developing strong stories and
making them work. His artistic vision, refined sense of the image
and intensity give his films a special feel.
Production company
Tasse Film was established in early 2011 by Alise Gelze and Aija
Berzina, producers with respectable experience in the film industry. In 2008, Alise Gelze participated in the Producers on the Move
initiative of European Film Promotion.
Tasse Film works in fiction and documentaries, TV commercials, music videos as well as providing production services for
shooting in Latvia. The main focus is on producing the works of
young, upcoming Latvian filmmakers. Currently in post-production is the short Wind Broke Grey Pines (by Madara Dislere).
In addition to Mellow Mud, we are developing the feature projects Tepid War (by Martins Grauds), and Arena (by Ilze
Kunga), both of which have received support from
the State Culture Fund of Latvia. Short film The
Poem (by Madara Dislere) has been selected for
Scanorama Film festival (Lithuania) and received
the Grand prix in the short film festival Rojal (Latvia).
Alise Gelze, producer
Aija Berzina, producer
Renars Vimba, screenwriter and director
Contact
Tasse
Blaumanu iela 11/13 - 13, Riga LV-1009, Latvia
Contact Person / Position: Aija Berzina / Alise Gelze
Phone: +371 26 466 014 (Aija) / +371 26 156 356 (Alise)
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]
www.tasse.lv
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / AUSTRIA
The Night of the 1000 Hours
Original title: Die Nacht der 1000 Stunden
Genre: drama, mystery, comedy
Screenwriter: Virgil Widrich
Director: Virgil Widrich
Producers: Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Bady Minck
Production companies: Amour Fou (Vienna, Austria),
Amour Fou (Luxembourg)
Language: English
Countries: Austria, Luxembourg
Goals at BE: finding co-producers, co-financers, world
sales
Synopsis
The Night of a Thousand Hours is the story of Philip Ullich, a young
Viennese businessman, who has just taken over the family company, when he is confronted with the strange arrival of his dead
ancestors, all interested in having a say in the future of the business. But when Philip discovers a dark secret in the family’s past he
must decide what to do, even if that means losing what he wants.
Occurring over one wild night with a murder, a séance, fake identities, a drawing-room showdown, a sprinkling of incest, a birth and
a revolution, The Night of a Thousand Hours is a madcap family
tragic-comedy about acknowledging the past and atoning for it.
Director’s note
Among the movies there is the small but appealing category of
„What-if? films“. For example, “What if every day were the same
day?“ (Groundhog Day) or „What if you could walk around inside somebody else‘s head?“ (Being John Malkovich). This
film plays with the idea: „What if earlier generations came
back into the world instead of a new one?“ For one story, set
in modern-day Vienna—specifically, in a family’s old palace—
this idea has historically relevant consequences. The dead bring
old moral values and old ideas back into the world, and with them
the history of Vienna and Europe.
directed and produced have been invited to more than 600 international film festivals, including the festivals of Cannes, Berlin
and Toronto. They have received numerous awards and special
mentions, among them the Award for the Cinema of the Future
at Pesaro 2003 (for In the Beginning was the Eye). In 2009, Bady
Minck was a member of the Orizzonti jury at the 66th Venice Film
Festival. She is the co-founder and managing director of Amour
Fou Luxembourg and a founding member and associate partner
of Amour Fou Vienna.
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu (Amour Fou Vienna), Born
1971 in Vienna. Has studied philosophy and film theory in Vienna. In
1989, he started to work as an independent film critic. From 1992
on, he worked as a distributor for Polyfilm Verleih (Vienna), as a
film programmer for movie theatres, and as a curator for film festivals in Germany, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Austria.
In 1995, Dumreicher-Ivanceanu and Bady Minck created the production company Minotaurus Film in Luxembourg. In 2001, together with Gabriele Kranzelbinder, he became managing director
and producer of the Vienna based production company Amour
Fou Filmproduktion.
Production company
Amour Fou is based in Vienna and Luxembourg. We produce feature, documentary and experimental films with international, especially European, partners for the international market. Films that
cross borders with their aesthetics, subjects and technologies.
Films that reflect upon and question the past and present, the possibilities and future of society and cinema.
Founded in Vienna in 2001, Amour Fou stands for aesthetic
vision in regard to artistic as well as production and distribution strategies and is open for crossover projects
with modern music, science and fine art. Amour Fou
films have premiered in Cannes, Berlin and Toronto
and received numerous awards.
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, producer
Director
Virgil Widrich, born 1967 in Salzburg (Austria). His feature film
debut, Heller als der Mond (Brighter than the Moon, 2000) premiered at IFFR 2000 and received several awards, while his short
film Copy Shop won 35 international awards and received an Oscar
nomination. The short film Fast Film won 36 international awards,
has been shown at 280 festivals to date and in 2006 was included
in the list of the 100 most important short films of the past 100
years by 30 leading film critics at the Annecy Animation Festival.
From 2001 to 2007 Widrich taught or gave guest lectures at several universities in Austria and Germany. Since 2007 he has been
the professor of digital art at the University of the Applied Arts in
Vienna.
Producer
Bady Minck (Amour Fou Luxembourg), born in Luxembourg,
works as an artist, filmmaker, and film producer. The films she
Contact
Amour Fou
Lindengasse 32, 1070 Vienna, Austria
Contact Person: Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu
Phone: +43 199 499 110
E-mail: ivanceanu@amourfoufilm.com
www.amourfoufilm.com
29
BALTIC BRIDGE EAST BY WEST / FRANCE
Saaremaa
Original title: Saaremaa
Genre: drama
Screenwriters: Guillaume André, Anne-Louise Trividic,
Johanne Bernard
Director: Guillaume André
Producer: Charlotte Vincent
Production company: Aurora Films
Languages: French, English, Estonian
Countries: France, Estonia
Partners attached: Centre Images (French regional fund
for scriptwriting)
Goals at BE: finding co-producers, sales agent and distributors
Synopsis
In France, Sacha, 27 years old, prepares for an expedition to the
Equator but the unexpected return of Eri, an Estonian, puts him
off course.
A shapeless, oversized T-shirt, a thick beard, dishevelled hair.
Sacha, 27 years old, is only just returning to “the land of the living”.
He thinks he’s doing better. He hopes to make up for lost time. He
makes every effort to get his life, brutally interrupted two years ago
after the death of his lover and colleague, back to normal. But he
still doesn’t sleep well, or very much.
Just then, Eri, an Estonian sailor he was very briefly involved
with a few months ago, comes back into his life. His unexpected
return confuses Sacha and throws his life off track again. When Eri
suddenly disappears, Sacha abandons everything and leaves for
Estonia to try and understand what happened. Sacha’s strange
passage from France to Estonia takes him on an interior journey that leads him to true rebirth.
Director’s note
To enter Sacha’s psyche and examine the effects of these
disturbances, the film will focus less on plot and more on
minute observations, an accumulation of details, moods and
sensations, a system of echoes, reverberations and gaps. The
film will closely examine the character’s breathing, attitudes and
movements in an attempt to illustrate his inner world in simple,
concrete terms. This approach links Saaremaa to my two previous
films.
There is a strong spirit of community in Saaremaa. The light is
always changing, and is nearly constant in summertime. The forest, and nature in general, come alive with real intensity, saturated
with colors, noises and sounds, and the spiritual connection to nature, the euphoria that seems to permeate the entire island at that
time of year, provided a perfect setting for Sacha’s reawakening
and inner journey.
Director
Guillaume André spent two years in Warsaw where he worked on
the Festival du Film Français de Varsovie, handled programming
at the Institut Français and hosted a radio show. He then returned
to Paris to major in scriptwriting at the FEMIS film school. He
30
became a directing assistant in theatre and co-wrote several film
projects. He then directed Bleu #11, a film about the Documenta
in Kassel followed by Le moindre souffle. selected to various
festivals throughout France and awarded the Prix de l’Innovation
at the Festival de Villeurbanne. In 2010, he completed Une autre
voix, a documentary film. During this time, he developed his
first feature film, Saaremaa, with co-screenwriters Anne-Louise
Trividic and Johanne Bernard. Guillaume is currently in residence
at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Academy) in Marseille and
is preparing Luminy, a film mixing fiction and documentary styles.
Guillaume is also co-writing L’Enfant hébreu with Jean-Claude
Carrière, a feature film based on the life of Ben Yehouda, and is
working with Laurence Ferreira Barbosa on the script for the film
La vie de Pamela Rose.
Producer
Charlotte Vincent founded Aurora Films after graduating from
HEC (the leading French business school) in 2002. Since then,
she has produced shorts, documentaries and feature films.
Production company
Over the past few years, Aurora Films, based in Paris, France, has
specialized in French and international co-productions, including:
The Wound (La blessure) by Nicolas Klotz, selected to Director’s
Fortnight in Cannes 2004, Domaine by Patric Chiha, featuring
Beatrice Dalle and selected to the Mostra of Venice in 2009, Iris in
Bloom (En ville) by Valérie Mréjen and Bertrand Schefer, selected
to Director’s Fortnight in Cannes 2011, and On the Edge (Sur la
planche) by Leila Kilani, also selected to Director’s Fortnight in
Cannes 2011 and winner of more than 10 awards worldwide. Producing also shorts and documentaries, Aurora Films invests heavily in developing new talent and promoting debut
directors, with different projects currently in
financing or production stages.
Charlotte Vincent, producer
Guillaume André, director
Contact
Aurora Films
16, rue Bleue, 75009 Paris, France
Contact Person : Mylene Guichoux / Head of Production
Phone: +33 1 4770 4301
E-mail: contact@aurorafilms.fr
www.aurorafilms.fr
Sharnohoy – the Yellow Dog
Original title: Шарнохой – Желтый Пес
Genre: drama
Screenwriter: Bair Dishenov
Director: Bair Dishenov
Producers: Vlad Ketkovich, Dmitry Strelayev
Production companies: BuryatKino (Russia), Ethnofund
(Russia)
Language: Buryat, Russian
Country: Russia
Financing in place: 107 000 Euros (20%)
Partners attached: TBC
Goals at BE: finding co-producers and financial partners
Synopsis
On the wooden slopes along the border of Mongolia and Russia live
Buryat Sharnohoy and his pregnant wife Gerelma, ordinary hard
working villagers—young and happy.
On her way home from a hospital visit one day, Gerelma has a
disturbing vision of a rider on a black horse and becomes violently
sick. Back home, she keeps the incident secret as Sharnohoy is delighted with the good news—that they will have a son. But the Black
Rider returns to her in her dreams the following night. Her husband
watches helplessly as her condition deteriorates rapidly—she no
longer recognizes him, and eventually flees her home. Sharnohoy
takes her back to the hospital, where she is sedated and tied to
her bed, until the doctors’ council in the morning. But Gerelma’s
mother insists on an abortion, claiming that Sharnohoy’s family is
cursed and the past is now threatening her daughter’s life.
Astounded by this information, Sharnohoy reluctantly seeks
out an old man who can tell him the tale of his family. It appears
that in the 1930s, when the collective farms were organized, his
great grandfather, an ardent communist, ploughed a sacred field
and destroyed ceremonial constructions. After that, a Rider began
to wipe out his family. Everyone died young and tragically. Sharnohoy is the only survivor, saved by his grandmother, who gave him
a new name—Sharnohoy, the “Yellow Dog”. Raised by strangers, he went unnoticed by the Black Rider until now—as he
is about to have a son. The only way to save his family is to
conduct a ritual to suppress the evil spirit.
While the doctors plan an abortion with the approval
of Sharnohoy’s mother-in-law, he asks for one more day
and goes to the Buddhist temple, Datsan. A day-long prayer
service is held, initiating a fight between the worlds of humans
and Hungry Spirits. In order to win this challenging fight, the fate of
Sharnohoy, his family and his kind rapidly depends on what Sharnohoy believes deep down about this strange spiritual unity that
imbues his homeland.
Director’s note
In the cycle of life, according to the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, as practiced here in Buryatia, there are six realms of sentient beings: gods, demigods, people, hungry ghosts, animals,
and martyrs of hell. The people only come into contact with two
worlds, people and animals. The others we can only guess on. But
we are not alone in the cycle of life, there are worlds and beings
beyond our command, which can be hostile and ruthless if harmony between the worlds is broken. I want to make the viewers
feel another world, the world of hungry ghosts; to convince people that it really exists.
Director
Bair N. Dishenov (1966) is an Honoured Artist of the Republic of
Buryatia. His debut, the Russian-Mongolian short film Buddha’s
Smile (2008) had a successful run on the festival circuit and won
the Crystal Bear at Berlinale. Dishenov’s second short film, Mother’s Will (2011), premiered at Court Metrage Festival de Cannes
2012.
Producer
Vladislav Ketkovich (1971) graduated from Moscow State Teacher Training University and studied at Higher Courses of Scriptwriters and Film Directors. His first filming experiences were on the
field of visual anthropology: Pigmy people, Peruvian Indians, nomadic Kazakhs, etc. In 2000, Ketkovich founded the production
company Ethnofund. He has published articles and photos in GEO,
National Geographic, and other magazines. Ketkovich is a member
of European Documentary Network, International Federation of
Journalists, Russian Geographical Society, and Eurasian Academy
of Television and Radio.
Production company
BuryatKino (formerly Geser Film Studio) is based in Buryatia and
run by Bair Dishenov. The studio has cooperated with cinematographers from Russia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and France. BuryatKino has focused on making films dedicated to Buryat traditional
culture and the level of recognition from film festivals such as Berlinale and Cannes illustrates the demand for creative rethinking of
the ideas of traditional and national arts and culture.
Since 2005, Ethnogeographic Research Foundation (Ethnofund) has produced more than 20 documentaries, which have won
a number of prizes from international film festivals. Since 2010, the
company is working on international co-productions with
the ambition of bringing Russian directors and stories to
international TV and film market.
Vlad Ketkovich, producer
Dmitry Strelayev, producer
Contact
BuryatKino
Novatorov 36/3-171, 119421 Moscow, Russia
Contact Person / Position: Vlad Ketkovich / Producer
Phone: +7 495 735 9568, +7 916 674 0654
www.ethnofund.ru
31
POWR
Baltic Stories Exchange
Welcome to this year’s POWR event!
For the 5th time we look forward to present scriptwriters and stories from the Nordic and Baltic countries at the Baltic Event.
This year we have become a fully integrated part of the Baltic Event
family, which is a great pleasure and something we look forward to
build on in the years to come.
Focusing on giving writing talent a platform of their own has become a welcome addition to the existing BE-programmes, offering
the attending guests more projects to be inspired by and get involved with, and experienced writing talent to become acquainted
with and involve in existing film projects, as writers, co-writers, developers and script consultants.
Our aim is to assist the writers in finding partners and collaborators in the international marketplace, giving them an intense development experience and a lot of opportunities for networking.
We have selected 8 projects this year and the writers and writer-directors will spend an intensive day and a half developing their
projects and preparing their presentations up till the pitch at 16
o’clock the 27th of November, where we look very much forward
to welcoming you!
put to work at a recovery centre for mental health patients; a multistrand story about relationships and dancing, inspired by a Raymond Carver short story; a story about a woman who must face
her own life after discovering an old correspondence between 2
sisters; a young mermaid, who falls in love and abandons her family to pursue a new life as a human; a young woman who dreams of
a big journalistic career and discovers the temptations and pitfalls
of the clash of a Soviet upbringing and Western consumerism; a
male medical student in 1850s Norway who falls in love with a colleague and pursues this secret relationship, alienating his fiancée
and putting his medical career at risk; and a story about 2 young
Lithuanian men who seek easy money abroad and meet a grumpy
old man for whom they will ultimately risk their job.
The presentation is an open invitation for everyone to share in an
informal and story-passionate atmosphere and we look forward to
meeting you!
POWR is organized by Baltic Event and MEDIA Desk Estonia. Partners and supporters are The Cultural Endowment of Estonia, TorinoFilmlab, Scandinavian and Baltic MEDIA Desks.
On behalf of the POWR-team,
Valeria Richter
tutor/co-organizer
We hope you will also take advantage of this event to get to know
them better at the 1:1 meetings.
Now it’s time to briefly introduce the 8 new projects – you can read
about them and the talents behind on the following pages: meet a
couple in their 30s who are forced to face their true feelings when
hosting another couple that mirror all their own vulnerabilities; a
depression comedy about a career woman who collapses and is
33
POWR / DENMARK
Dance for Me
Synopsis
Contact
A man selling all of his stuff, a funeral, and a couple moving in together. Three different stories tangled together. John is looking for
a new love, Susanne just lost hers, and Erik and Sara are struggling
to keep their love alive. They all want something else than what
they’ve got, but are the things they want out there?
In the end, two of them will be dancing on a lawn in suburbia, waiting for an answer.
Phone: +45 2044 8736
Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Jonas began his career as a film- and radio documentary
maker at the Danish Public Radio (DR), debuting in 2006
with the acclaimed one hour documentary film Something
About Halfdan, followed by a series of radio documentaries
from around the world.
He began directing fiction after joining the Danish film collective Super16 at Nordisk Film, where he has written and directed
3 short fiction films. “Searching for Bill” is Jonas’ latest film and his
feature film debut just won the NORDIC:DOX award at CPH:DOX.
will be his feature film debut - a mix of documentary and fiction
shot on location in New Orleans, Detroit and Southern California.
Status of the project: Funding: none Project stage: early writing stage
Looking for: co-writer, co-producer
POWR / SWEDEN
Dear Sister
Synopsis
Contact
At the abandoned section of the institution the indifferent inmate
Jovanna stumbles across a century-old heartbreaking correspondence between a former patient, Erika, and her sister Laura.
Jovanna starts to read and is unwillingly drawn into the story. In
1906 Erika was placed by force at the institution by her husband,
a well-respected priest, after she disgraced him in public and lost
all contact with her five daughters. Laura rushed to Erika’s rescue
but her determined brother-in-law and the experimental desirous
medical profession was too powerful and over and over again Laura had to acknowledge her own defeat. In one last attempt Laura
managed to rescue Erika, but too late? Jovanna puts the last
letter aside. In the outside world her daughter is longing
for contact and Jovanna can no longer stay numb.
Phone: +46 70376 9216
Maria Ljuslin
Film (Director & screenwriter): Swim Sam (2012),
King Jan (2011), Maud & Tord (2010)
Theatre (Director): The Catapult (2011), No Exit (2011),
Frieda Kahló (2010), Bloody Lemonade (2010), The Summer at Platonovka (2008)
Status of the project: Funding: none
Project stage: full length treatment
Looking for: producer
34
POWR / FINLAND
Depression Comedy
Synopsis
Eeva, 51, is a line production innovation manager in a big steel company. Her work is demanding and Eeva doesn’t rely on anybody
else’s help. One day at work she has a fit of rage towards some big
Japanese customers and collapses. Six months later Eeva is still on
sick leave. To her horror, the doctor suggests that Eeva should try
to help out at a work centre for recovering mental health patients.
There, Eeva meets the centre’s leader, Merja, 50, and other recovering patients like ex-bouncer Saku, 29, and a talented student Elias,
19. Eeva decides to solve the other patients’ problems and improve
the production methods at the centre. At first it seems to work, but
soon it all ends up in chaos. Eeva secretly takes in a big order that the
patients can’t handle. She sleeps with Elias and breaks his heart, and
causes Saku to have another breakdown. Losing her job at the steel
company she can’t return to the work centre either, so she is back on
the couch with nothing left to lose, yet the people of the work centre
will be the ones who help her back on track.
Kirsikka Saari & Jenni Toivoniemi
Jenni Toivoniemi has studied screenwriting in several internation-
al workshops including Script&Pitch and Berlinale Talent Campus Script Station. Currently she is
doing her MA in screenwriting and directing at Elo
Helsinki Film School. Her latest film The Date premiered at Nordisk Panorama 2012. She has worked
as a journalist, research assistant and producer of cultural events.
Kirsikka Saari wrote a miniseries Paradise, for YLE
(dir. Reetta Aalto), which was chosen to Prix Europa.
Her other works include scripts for a short film Girls’
Night (dir. Reetta Aalto) and Do I Have to Take Care of
Everything? (dir. Selma Vilhunen), which was selected
to many festivals incl. Nordic Panorama. She is now doing her MA in screenwriting and directing at Elo Helsinki Film
School.
Contact
Kirsikka Saari
Phone: +358 40 571 0135
Jenni Toivoniemi
E-mail: jenni@toivoniemi.fi
Phone: +358 40 740 2752
Status of the project: Funding: € 6000 grant for screenwriters from the Finnish Film Foundation
Project stage: treatment Looking for: co-producers
POWR / ESTONIA
Metaphors
Synopsis
Andris Feldmanis & Livia Ulman
Anna and Juhan are in their 30’s and have been together for
the past 8 years. They just had an abortion after deciding they are
not ready to have children yet. Their well-off friends offer them a
chance to spend a week at their country house. While there, the
two give shelter to another couple during a storm - Triin and Erik
- who mistake Anna and Juhan for the owners of the house. Instead of admitting they are just visitors Anna and Juhan decide to
play along. The more they get to know the other couple, the more
they seem like versions of themselves. Despised by this similarity,
Anna and Juhan embrace their new roles and start harassing their
guests, and while doing so, reveal the uncertainties and vulnerabilities of their own relationship and the true feelings about the
abortion. Trying to provoke Erik and Triin to betray each other by
undermining their relationship, the night turns into a frantic game
full of psychological warfare. But in the end nothing changes, as
Anna and Juhan are left with just themselves and endless words to
explain and reason without really getting any answers.
Andris Feldmanis (1982), BA in History. Has
worked as a journalist, critic, copywriter and translator. Currently living and working in Tallinn, Estonia as a freelance screenwriter and photographer.
Has co-written several TV series.
Livia Ulman (1982), BA in philology and literature,
has worked as a translator and editor and currently works as a freelance screenwriter. Has co-written several TV series.
Contact
Andris Feldmanis
Phone: +3725037593
Livia Ulman
Status of the project: Funding: script development from Estonian Film Foundation
Project stage: first draft Looking for: co-producers
35
POWR / FINLAND
Pykeija
Synopsis
A young mermaid rescues a teenage boy from the Arctic Sea and
falls in love for the first time. Denying her underwater family forever, she chooses to become a human and spend the rest of her
life with the boy, Peter. As a teenage girl with injured legs, she begins her life in an isolated fisherman’s village controlled by Peter’s
oppressive father. The passionate summer with Peter begins, and
her wild persona starts causing tension among the villagers. She
becomes a misfit, a girl called Pykeija. Confused with Pykeija´s
deep emotions, Peter gets involved with a shy girl, Marie, claiming
that she was the one who saved him. Unable to reveal her true nature, Pykeija tries to make Peter jealous and gets into dangerous
games with the adult men of the village, only to find out that Peter
has made Marie pregnant. Pykeija has to make a choice between
herself and Peter’s happiness. Heartbroken, she confronts Peter´s
abusive father and kills him in order to protect her first love.
outstanding short films have toured festivals in Europe, the United
States and Japan. Mantela’s short film The Children won the main
prize at the Blue Sea Film Festival in 2005. Mantela studies film
directing at the ELO Helsinki Film School of Aalto Uni- v e r s i t y .
Pykeija will be her first feature film.
Contact
Mari Mantela
Phone: +358 50 547 4929
Mari Mantela
Mari Mantela (b. 1978) is a Finnish director and writer. Since
2005, she has directed commercial films for leading Finnish and
international brands such as Fiskars, Nokia and Bayer. Her visually
Status of the project: Funding: none Project stage: early writing stage
Looking for: co-writers and co-producers from Sweden, Estonia, Norway.
POWR / LITHUANIA
Special Price
Synopsis
Aiste Ptakauske
Christine has just finished high school and dreams of studying
journalism at the prestigious Columbia University. In pursuit of a
break-through story for her application Christine arrives in Lithuania, the homeland of her grandparents. She soon becomes underwhelmed by her internship at an intellectual magazine and decides
to get a position at the biggest media group that, supposedly, use
their models as elite escort girls. The more she gets to know the
potential subjects of her story, the more fascinated she becomes
with their lifestyle. She even starts dating one of the owners of the
company and almost forgets why she started working there in
the first place. When her new boyfriend finds out that she is
still a virgin, he decides to sell her first time to one of his
biggest clients. Christine manages to escape the rape,
but her dreams and faith in “girlpower” are shaken,
she learns the pros and cons of womanhood the hard
way, gaining a much better understanding of what it
takes to be what you want to be as a woman in the
modern world.
Aiste Ptakauske is a screenwriter, playwright, and novelist from
Lithuania. Her bibliography includes a collection of short stories,
2 novels, and the Lithuanian translation of Leonard Cohen’s novel
Beautiful Losers. A winner of multiple awards such as a national
prize for the best fiction debut of the year and a Fulbright fellowship, she had her plays presented at regional and state theatres
in Lithuania as well as international festivals in Europe, Asia, and
North America. In 2010 she got her Master’s degree in TV, Radio &
Film from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at
Syracuse University (NY, USA) and started working full time as a
television writer and producer. The lion share of Aiste’s work in
television, film, theatre, and publishing is devoted to promotion of mutual understanding among different cultures and
communities. For more information, please, visit Aiste’s
official website: www.aiste-ptakauske.com
Contact
Aiste Ptakauske
Phone: +370 6879 4500
Status of the project: Funding: grant from Lithuanian Ministry of Culture to develop the first
draft of the script (January-September, 2012) Project stage: 1st draft
Looking for: producer and/or financier
36
POWR / LITHUANIA
Wall of Nails
Synopsis
A typical Lithuanian situation: in an attempt to escape their problems at home, two young men are planning to go to Norway with a
wish to easily earn some money and enjoy some fresh air in the Norwegian fiords.
They are, however, confronted with new problems when they
undertake to change the wooden sidings of the house of a grumpy
and unsociable Norwegian man, Bjorn, who has been living alone
for many years and who hates his next-door neighbours. The
young men decide to make Bjorn overcome his isolation, and
gradually, ‘nail by nail’, they win his trust. But at the same
time old problems begin to surface. The friendship of the
three men undergoes a critical test of human values. In
the end Bjorn remains all alone, but with a new desire
for life.
Censure, which was selected for the programme ‘Forum of Independents’ at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In 2006 he
directed his second short film Mandabalu. It won awards for best
screenplay and best direction in the category of short films at the
AXX film festival. He also has experience in TV advertising.
Contact
Sarunas Mikulskis
Phone: +370 6187 5079
Sarunas Mikulskis
Šarunas Mikulskis was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1972. He
studied architecture at Vilnius Art Academy and graduated with
a degree of Master in Arts. In 2005 he directed his first short film
Status of the project: Funding: € 7240. Development support from Lithuanian Culture Support Foundation
Project stage: treatment, close to 1st draft stage. Looking for: co-producers
POWR / NORWAY
X’ANIA
Synopsis
Christiania, capital of Norway, in the early 1850’s. Cornelius Werring, a promising medical student, is appointed head of a cholera
hospice, where he meets a radical colleague, Mikkel Mortensen.
Much to his own dismay, he falls in love with him. Under the threat
of jail and social ostracism, he decides to follow his heart, and
pursues a secret relationship with Mikkel. In the process, he alienates his fiancée, his friends and family, and when Mikkel dies in an
accident, Cornelius finds himself emotionally isolated. Rumours
abound, but nobody wants a scandal, and he is allowed to finish his
medical studies. His career is put on hold, however, and when he
is offered a job as a bureaucrat he discovers a new sense of
integrity in his grief, turns down the humiliating offer, and
decides to continue Mikkel’s medical practice among the
poor.
television comedy show 5080 Nyhetskanalen. Currently he can be
seen as a supporting actor in The Almost Man (Best Film at Karlovy
Vary 2012). He is the author (with Bjørnar Pedersen) of two crime
novels, Hillman Hunter and Dead Things. A third novel, The Spirit of
Evil, will be published in the autumn of 2013.
Contact
Egil Birkeland
Phone: +47 4151 6843
Egil Birkeland
Egil has been working as a freelance writer and actor in
Norwegian radio, television and film for 25 years. Since
2009 he is a recurring cast member of the weekly satiric radio show Hallo i uken. This autumn he also appears regularly on the
Status of the project:
Funding: none Project stage: treatment
Looking for: producer
37
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Screening 1
Demons
Estonia
118 min, HD, 1:1.85, Dolby Stereo Surround
Original title: Deemonid
Director: Ain Mäeots
Scriptwriters: Ain Mäeots, Toomas “Tommiboy” Tilk
Cinematographer: Elen Lotman, E.S.C.
Editor: Tambet Tasuja
Music: Andres Lõo
Principal cast: Tambet Tuisk, Ene Järvis, Ain Lutsepp, Evelin Võigemast, Mait Malmsten
Producer: Anneli Ahven
Production company: Kopli Kinokompanii
National premiere: November 8, 2012
When Joko, Ants and Reeda, all in their own good reasons, first enter a casino, they can’t possibly be aware of the very existence of
the demons inside them. Soon enough, they will know. But then it is
already too late and their lives are suddenly caught in a fatal vortex.
Demons is an attempt to treat gambling and casinos from the
viewpoint of a gambling addict – through the stories of three very
different people. These stories are based on events that have really
happened, and the experience of real people.
It is a story of lies told for a noble cause and that build a spiritual and mental hell for oneself and one’s close ones. We explore
and depict this process so honestly, painfully and sometimes even
painfully funny, just like it actually is.
40
Director
Ain Mäeots graduated from Estonian Music and Theatre Academy in 1994. He started his career as actor and theatre director. In
1999 – 2006 he was artistic director of drama department in State
Vanemuine Opera,Ballet and Drama Theatre. He has directed over
30 theatre and TV productions in these years
Filmography: Demons (2012), Taarka (2008)
Contact
Kopli Kinokompanii
Gonsiori 21, 10147 Tallinn, Estonia
Phone: +372 5562 2041
www.kinokompanii.ee
Screening 21
Pizzas
Latvia
66 min, DCP, 1:2.35, Digital Surround
Original title: Picas
Director: Laila Pakalnina
Scriptwriter: Laila Pakalnina
Cinematographer: Uldis Jancis
Editor: Kaspar Kallas
Music: Gacho
Principal cast: Pauls Iklavs, Reinis Stabins
Producers: Laila Pakalnina, Kaur Kallas
Production companies: Hargla Company (LAT), Digitaalne Sputnik (EST)
National premiere: November 11, 2012
Features: Pizzas (2012), Silence (short, 2009), Stones (short,
2008), Fire (short, 2007), The Hostage (2006), Water (short,
2006), The Python (2003), The Shoe (1998), Anna’s Christmas
(short 1992)
Documentaries: Snow Crazy (2012), 33 Animals of Santa
Claus (2011), On Rubiks’ Road (2010), Three Men and Fish Pond
(2008), Theodore (2006), Dream Land (2004), The Bus (2004),
It’ll Be Fine (2004), Martins (2002), Papa Gena (2001), Wake up
(2000), The Oak (1997), Ubans (1995), The Mail (1995), The Ferry (1994), The Church (1993), The Pilgrimage (1991), The Linen
(1991), The Dome (1991), The Choice (1990), And (1988)
People do strange things and call them PIZZAS.
Oskars (almost 18 years old) and Matiss (already 18) work as pizza
bakers. It’s a temporary job for them. They have huge future plans
– studies at e.g. Oxford. But they turn their lives upside down in one
evening. Most likely they will be charged guilty even in the kidnapping of a child.
Director
Laila Pakalnina (1962) graduated from the Moscow University,
Department of TV Journalism. in 1986. 1991 graduated from the
Moscow Film Institute (VGIK), Department of Film Direction.
Director and scriptwriter of 21 documentaries, 5 shorts, 4 fiction
features. So she has 30 films, 2 children, 1 husband, 1 dog, 1 bicycle.
And many ideas for new films.
Contact
Hargla Company
Valtaiku 19
Riga, LV-029, Latvia
Phone: +371 2923 5618
41
Screening 3
Christmas Uncensored
Latvia
89 min, DCP, 1:1,85
Original title: Tyli naktis
Director: Maris Martinsons
Scriptwriter: Maris Martinsons
Cinematographer: Feliksas Abrukauskas
Editor: Maris Martinsons
Music: Mario Basanov
Principal cast: Valda Bickute, Leonardas Pobedonoscevas, Kostas
Smoriginas
Producers: Linda Krukle, Mars Martinsons
Production companies: Krukfilms
International premiere: November 2012, Tallinn Black Nights Film
Festival, Estonia
National premiere: January 2013
this Festival that Maris came up with his idea for Loss. Shooting
took place on locations both in Lithuania and Ireland, edited and
completed in Beijing. During 2008 – 2010 Loss has travelled all
round the world participating in numerous film festivals. It has been
the first feature film from Baltic winning A class film festival awards
– Best Director and Best Music in Shanghai IFF (2008). Loss represented Lithuania in the Academy Awards as the Best Foreign Language film. His film Amaya is specially devoted for Kaori Momoi,
Japanese actress, who made this inspiration. Currently he releases
his third feature film Christmas. Uncensored. In the development
stage there are three – four feature film projects, including a new
comedy feature film Tempura with Kaori Momoi.
In one of the post-soviet countries, where sexual taboos are still
ruling the society and strong traditions of Catholicism and homophobia are alive, family members and couple of friends come
together to celebrate Christmas Eve. “Silent night, holy night”....
Lack of silence, just as holiness...
Director
Maris Martinsons is a film director, screenwriter, editor and producer. After graduating from Latvia Conservatoires in 1989 as a
drama theatre director he worked together with Latvian musicians
as an independent director/producer for music videos. He has created over 10 original TV series. In 2006 he premiered his hostage
drama Anastasia at the Montreal World Film Festival. It was during
42
Contact
Krukfilms
Kalnciema 1a-11, Riga Latvia
Phone: +371 2205 1060
E-mail: info@krukfilms.com, [email protected]
www.krukfilms.com
Screening 4
Mushrooming
Estonia
93 min, HD & 35mm , 1:1.85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Seenelkäik
Director: Toomas Hussar
Scriptwriter: Toomas Hussar
Cinematographer: Rein Kotov, E.S.C.
Editor: Tambet Tasuja
Music: Arian Levin
Principal cast: Raivo E. Tamm, Elina Reinold, Juhan Ulfsak, Üllar
Saaremäe, Hendrik Toompere jr. jr.
Producer: Piret Tibbo-Hudgins
Production company: Allfilm
International premiere: July 1, 2012, Karlovy Vary IFF
National premiere: September 20, 2012
Politician Aadu and his wife set out to pick mushrooms on a day
when he gets a call from a journalist confronting him with regard
to suspected corruption. By coincidence the married couple find
themselves in a car with a pompous rock idol named Zäk. After discovering that the spot his wife has chosen to pick mushrooms is
full of vacationers, Aadu decides to find a quieter place. The woods
where he ultimately ends up, however, are perhaps too deep and
inhospitable, and finding a way out may not be easy...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Seenelkaik?ref=ts&fref=ts
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuX6-eE-gH0
Director
Toomas Hussar has studied mathematics at Tartu University and
acting at the Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and
Theatre. He has written and directed numerous theatre plays and
TV-dramas, and received awards for his works. His short stories
have been published in the different collection-books. Mushrooming is his first feature film.
Selected filmography: The Jürgensons (15 parts x 25 min
documentary series) 2001, 100 Years -100 Days (100 parts x 1 min.
drama series) 1999, The Mayor (tv-drama) 1997
Contact
Allfilm
Saue 11, Tallinn 10612, Estonia
Phone: +372 6729070
E-mail: allfilm@allfilm.ee
www.allfilm.ee
43
Screening 5
All Musicians Are Bastards
Estonia
86 min, HD, 1:1.85, Stereo 5.1
Original title: Kõik muusikud on kaabakad
Director: Heleri Saarik
Scriptwriter: Heleri Saarik
Cinematographer: Erik Põllumaa
Editor: Jaak Ollino
Music: Tõnis Leemets
Principal cast: Riina Maidre, Nero Urke, Jarek Kasar, Helina Risti,
Lotte Jürjendal
International premiere: October 7, 2012 - Busan IFF - Flash Forward, South Korea
National premiere: October 26, 2012
Leila is a musician who instead of conventional jazz is drawn to
surrealist electronic sounds. However, avant-garde doesn’t pay
the rent, so Leila needs to keep herself busy with odd jobs. Self-destructive lifestyle and the cutthroat nature of music business causes Leila to wonder about where are the limits inside a person’s
head, and the outside world, where human relationships are not
the highest goal but simply a means of prestige and self exhibition.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KoikMuusikudOnKaabakad?ref=ts&fref=ts
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zahr24mSgeA
Director
Heleri Saarik graduated from the Baltic Film & Media School as a
44
film director and continues Theatre & Film Directing MA studies at
Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre.
She received the Best Music Video Director Award at 2010 Estonian Music Awards. All Musicians Are Bastards is her first feature
film.
Filmography: Tale of a Nixie (short film) 2010, Especially in
the Mornings (short film) (2008), Till Death do us Part (short film)
2008, To Rest and Play (short film) 2007
Contact
Allfilm
Saue 11, Tallinn 10612, Estonia
Phone: +372 6729070
www.allfilm.ee
Screening 61
Fortress of Sleeping Butterflies
Lithuania
117 min, 35 mm, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Mieganciu drugeliu tvirtove
Director: Algimantas Puipa
Scriptwriters: Algimantas Puipa
Cinematographer: Viktoras Radzevicius
Editor: Ricardas Matacius
Music: Kipras Mashanauskas
Principal cast: Janina Lapinskaite, Vytautas Balsys, Migle Polikeviciute, Elze Gudaviciute
Producer: Uljana Kim
Production company: Studio Uljana Kim
National premiere: January 13, 2012
Main heroine of the story is Monika—fifty-year-old wife of the lawyer. Her life’s turning point was unexpected event—car accident,
and prostitute, which was injured in it, later committed suicide in
hospital. Sudden encounter with the woman of such fate has a
sequel. While her husband is on business trip, Monika takes home
and is trying to look after three prostitutes deported from Germany.
This custody eventually turns into the revaluation of her life
events. Divorce, unexpected fates of her wards, finally, car accident, in which Monika is injured, is already a beginning of her new
life—“Life after Life”.
Director
Algimantas Puipa (1951) graduated from Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in 1974
Selected filmography, features: Woman and Her 4 Men
(1983) - screened at Berlinale, Eternal Light (1987), Fish Day
(1989), Ticket to Tajmahal (1990), The Process (1994), The Wolfteeth Necklace (1997) - winner of Nordic Countries Film Festival
in Rouen 1998, Elze’s Life 1999 - Official selection Berlinale 2000,
Forest of Gods (2005), Whisper of Sin (2007), Fortress of Sleeping
Butterflies (2012)
Contact
Studio Uljana Kim
Antakalnio 94-25, Vilnius, Lithuania
Phone: +370 5234 7060
45
Screening 7
Narcissus
Lithuania / Greece
98 min, DCP, 1:1.85, Dolby Stereo SR
Original title: Narcizas
Director: Dovile Gasiunaite
Scriptwriters: Dovile Gasiunaite
Cinematographer: Audrius Kemezys
Editors: Martina Jablonskaite, Gitas Silga
Music: Giedrius Puskunigis
Principal cast: Amvrosios Vlachopoulos, Sigitas Sidlauskas, Asmik Grigorian, Susanna Perry-Gilmore
Producers: Teresa Ziboliene, Nikos Moutselos
Production company: Ketvirta Versija
National premiere: May 10, 2012
Narcissus (from Greek Narkissos) shares the root nark- with narcosis and narcotic. All these words have the same origin in the verb
narka – to intoxicate through a strong smell.
In the modern interpretation of the antique myth Teodore is
a handsome and multiply gifted string quartet cello player, who
knows his own value. He draws people in, but ends up hurting
them, yet he is impossible to resist.
Teodore abandons his family, career, and friends in his quest
for a true challenge. He has yet to find out that his greatest confrontation will be with himself.
Director
Dovile Gasiunaite studied acting at Lithuanian Music Academy,
and film directing in a foreign class at FAMU, Prague. She made a
number of short films and worked as a casting director for a quite
46
a few Lithuanian films. Beginning with 2003 she has attended the
“North by Northwest” film production courses as well as Ateliers
d’Angers Master Classes led by Jeanne Moreau. Narcissus is her
first feature film.
Filmography: Orange Day (1996, 16mm, short/FAMU film
festival), Dialog (1997, TV, short), I, You, He, She (1997, 35mm,
short), Sarajevo Film festival; “Cinema Tout Ecran” Geneva), Who
Sleeps Beside You (2003, 35mm, short, Rotterdam Hot Spots
programme), Nothern Spring (2005, HDV, documentary), Papillon
Postale (2006, HD), Narcissus (2012, feature)
Contact
Ketvirta Versija
Revoniu 8-2, Vilnius, Lithuania
Phone: +370 6180 7994
www.ketvirtaversija.lt
Screening 81
Vanishing Waves
Lithuania, France, Belgium
120 min, DCP, 1:1.85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Aurora
Director: Kristina Buozyte
Scriptwriters: Kristina Buozyte, Bruno Samper
Editor: Suzanne Fenn
Music: Peter Von Poehl
Principal cast: Marius Jampolskis, Jurga Jutaite, Rudolfas Jansonas, Vytautas Kaniushonis
Producers: Ieva Norviliene, Pascal Judelewicz, Ludi Boeken, Chica
Benadava
Production companies: Tremora (LIT), Acajou Films (FRA), Les
Films 2 Cinema (BEL)
World sales: Reel suspects
Premiere: July 2012, Karlovy Vary IFF
Vanishing Waves is a powerful science fiction romance. Two young
people explore their feelings in reality and in another dimension
during scientific research, exposing links and contradictions between the human body and the mind.
Director
Born in Lithuania in 1982, Kristina Buožyte graduated with a
Master degree in Film and TV Directing from Lithuanian Music and
Theater Academy (2008).
Kristina was noticed for her short movie Change The Record in
2005. Her first feature The Collectress (graduation work for master degree) won The Best Movie Award in Lithuanian Silver Crane
Awards (2008); The Best Director Award in Russian film festival
“Kinoshock” (2008) and participated in more than 30 film festivals
– Karlovy Vary, Pusan, San Paulo, Valencia, Manheim, Cottbus, Cairo among others.
Vanishing Waves is her 2nd feature film. Film was awarded with
Special mention at Karlovy vary international film festival “East of
the west” competition; Special mention at Neutchatel film festival;
Special mention at Palic film festival, Emeric Pressburger prize at
Miscolic film festival; Best Film, Best Director, Best Script and Best
Actress at Fantastic Fest; Méliès d’Argent at Lund international film
festival; Méliès d’Or at Stiges fantastic film festival.
Sales
Reel Suspects
42 rue Rene Boulanger
750101 Paris, France
Phone: +33 1424 01284
www.reelsuspects.com
Contact
Tremora
Gyneju 4-327, Vilnius, LT-01109 Lithuania
Phone: +370 52 49 75 78
Mobile: +370 6869 7584
www.tremora.com
47
Screening 9
Mom, I Love You
Latvia
93 min, DCP, 1:2.35, Dolby Stereo SR
Original title: Mammu, es nevi milu
Director: Janis Nords
Scriptwriter: Janis Nords
Cinematographer: Tomias Datum
Editor: Tamara Meem
Principal cast: Kristofers Konovalovs, Viita Varpina, Matiss Livcans, Indra Brike
Producers: Alise Gelze, Gatis Smits
Production company: Tanka
To be released: February 2013
An adventurous and touching story of Raimonds, a misunderstood
adolescent, who trying to console his relationship with mother,
delves into the world of trouble and petty crime.
Director
Janis Nords, recently finished his master degree in directing at
National TV&Film School in London, is considered to be one of the
most promising upcoming directors from Latvia.
Features: Amateur – 2008 (feature), Au Revoir Monkeys –
2011 (short), Freedom Day – 2010 (short), Return of Sergeant
Lapins – 2010 (feature / script)
Contact
Tanka
Dzimavu 74.76-60, Riga, Latvia
Phone: +371 6727 2702
48
Screening 101
A Lady in Paris
France, Estonia, Belgium
95 min, 35mm, 1:1,85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Eestlanna Pariisis
Director: Ilmar Raag
Scriptwriters: Ilmar Raag, Agnes Feuvre, Lise Macheboeuf
Cinematographer: Laurent Brunet
Editor: Anne-Laure Guegan
Music. Dez Mona
Principal cast: Jeanne Moreau, Laine Mägi, Patrick Pineau
Producers: Riina Sildos, Milena Poylo, Gilles Sacutor
Co-producer: Philippe Kaufmann
Production companies: Amrion (Estonia), TS Productions
(France), La Parti Production (Belgium)
World sales: Pyramide International
Estonian premiere: October 12, 2013
French premiere: December 26, 2012
International premiere: August 4, 2012
Anne leaves Estonia to come to Paris and care for Frida, an elderly
Estonian lady who emigrated to France long ago. Anne soon realizes that she is not wanted. All Frida wants from life is the attention
of Stéphane, her younger lover from years ago. Stéphane, however,
is desperate for Anne to stay and look after Frida, even against the
old lady’s will. In this conflict of strangers, Anne finds her own way…
Director
Ilmar Raag is the writer and director of the most successful film
ever made in Estonia — Class (Amrion 2007), which was sold to 91
countries, has been shortlisted for the national Oscar nomination,
won 25 awards from 70 festivals, and developed into a multi-awarded TV-series. Ilmar’s next feature, A Lady in Paris (Amrion/Estonia,
TS Productions/France, La Parti Production/Belgium) premiered
at Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize.
In 2012, he also completed the production on his next two feature
films, Kertu and I Won’t Come Back (Amrion/Estonia, CTB Film
Company/Russia, Helsinki-film/Finland, Belarusfilm/Belorussia).
Ilmar has an MA in screenwriting from Ohio University, and works
as an expert for Eurimages and MEDIA Plus. Ilmar is also an acclaimed columnist in the biggest dailies, lecturer, and requested
media consultant.
Sales
Pyramide International
5 rue du Chevalier de Saint-George
75008 Paris, France
Phone: +33 14296 0101
E-mail: rricher@pyramidefilms.com
www.pyramidefilms.com
Contact
Amrion
Nurme 45, 11616 Tallinn, Estonia
Phone: +372 677 6363
www.amrion.ee
49
Screening 11
Purge
Finland, Estonia
110 min, 35 mm, Dolby Digital
rivalry, lust, and loss, that played out during the worst years of Estonia’s Soviet occupation.
Original title: Puhdistus
Director: Antti Jokinen
Scriptwriters: Marko Leino, Antti Jokinen, based on a book by Sofi
Oksanen
Cinematographer: Rauno Ronkainen
Music: Tuomas Kantelinen
Editor: Kimmo Taavila
Principal cast: Liisi Tandefelt, Laura Birn, Peter Franzén, Tommi
Korpela, Kristjan Sarv, Jaanika Arum, Maria Avdjushko
Producers: Markus Selin, Jukka Helle, Kristian Taska, Maria Avdjushko
Production companies: Solar Films Inc. (FIN), Taska Film (EST)
World sales: TrustNordisk
National premiere: August 30, 2012
International premiere:
Director
Purge is a breathtakingly suspenseful story of two women dogged
by their own shameful pasts and the dark, unspoken history that
binds them.
Aliide has experienced the horrors of the Stalin era and the deportation of Estonians to Siberia, but she herself has to cope with
the guilt of opportunism and even manslaughter. One night in 1992
she finds a young woman in the courtyard of her house; Zara has
just escaped from the claws of the Russian mafia who held her as
a sex slave. Aliide later learns that the girl is related to her. Each of
them a survivor, Aliide and Zara engage in a complex arithmetic of
suspicion and revelation to distil each other’s motives; gradually,
their stories emerge in the culmination of a tragic family drama of
50
Antti Jokinen is a writer and director of film and television in Finland, the US, and internationally. In more than 20 years he has written and developed features, produced and directed documentaries
and series for Finnish TV, and helmed ca 100 commercials and music videos in the US. His first US feature film is The Resident (2010),
starring Hilary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. In Finland, he has
the feature film Nicolas North in pre-production, written with Matthew Wilder and Eric Rochford.
Sales
TrustNordisk ApS
Filmbyen 28, 2650 Hvidovre, Denmark
Phone/fax: +45 3686 8788 / +45 3686 8750
www.trustnordisk.com
Contact
Taska Film
Tartu mnt 18-51
10115 Tallinn, Estonia
E-mail: fi[email protected]
Solar Films Inc.
Veneentekijäntie 20
00210 Helsinki, Finland
Phone: +358 9 417 44700
E-mail: markus.selin@solarfilms.com
www.solarfilms.com
We assist in securing rights to locations and streamlining cooperation with city
services, and manage a rich database of specialised companies in the region with a
constantly updated list of locations in Krakow and Malopolska.
film-commission.pl
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Viru väljak 3, 10111 Tallinn, Estonia
Phone: +372 622 2900 • Fax: +372 622 2901
[email protected] • Skype: nhf.reception
www.nordichotels.eu
BE coming soon / EST
The Arbiter
103 min, DCP, 1:2,35, Dolby Digital
Original title: The Arbiter
Genre: drama
Director: Kadri Kõusaar
Scriptwriter: Kadri Kõusaar
Cinematographer: Jean-Noel Mustonen F.S.C
Main cast: Lee Ingleby, Lina Leandersson, Andrea Lowe, Sofia
Berg-Böhm, Tony Aitken
Producer: Aet Laigu
Production companies: Tugev Tuul Filmis, Film I Väst
Sales Agent: The Yellow Affair
To be released: winter-spring 2013
Production budget: 1 000 000 €
Project status: in post-production
Looking for: Festivals, distribution
John (35) is a bright Cambridge scientist, who always comes
across as a pleasant fellow. When his fiancée leaves him, he withdraws from his world of academic isolation in order to try out some
of his long-gestating theories on how to make the world a better
place. On his journey through the English countryside, John is accompanied by his 14-year-old donor child – Ronja, whom he tries
to convert to the same radical ideas that he believes in. Social engineering. Cleansing. Murder. All justifiable in the mind of a modern
day European Psycho.
Director
Kadri Kõusaar (1980) is an Estonian writer, director and adventurer. Her media debut started at the age of 13 writing and drawing
cartoons and comic strips for newspapers. She has since published numerous film, literature and music-related articles, as well
as bestselling novels Ego (2001), Free Rise (2004) and Alfa (2011)
in Estonia. She has also worked as a radio-DJ and TV-host, and has
a university degree in Spanish language and literature. Her debut
feature Magnus (2007), about a father trying to help his suicidal
son, was the first Estonian film ever included at the official selection
of Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard, 2007) and won main
awards at Wiesbaden’s GoEast and Prague’s Febiofest. The Arbiter
is Kadri’s second feature.
Production company
Meteoriit is an independent production house founded in 2008
with the goal of producing, above all, films on an international scale
that have an universal, human-interest appeal. Meteoriit focuses
on the production and international co-production of feature films,
documentaries and trans-media projects.
Producer
Aet Laigu holds M.A. in Film and TV Studies from the University
of Warwick, UK. Prior to establishing an independent production
company Meteoriit in 2008, she worked on the production of several short films, TV commercials and feature films in Estonia. Currently she is producing directors like Aku Louhimies, Kadri Kõusaar
and Agne Nelk.
Sales
The Yellow Affair AB
Götgatan 9, SE-11646,
Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 645 1212
Mobile: +46 76 1993166 (Swe),
+358 50 548 1851 (Fin)
Skype: mpaasilinna
www.yellowaffair.com
Contact
Meteoriit Film
Kapi 5-17, 10136 Tallinn,
Estonia
Phone: +372 5825 8962
Skype: aetlaigu
www.thearbiter.eu
53
Free Range / Ballad on Approving of the World
16mm, 1:1,66, Dolby Stereo SR
Director
Original title: Free Range / Ballaad maailma heakskiitmisest
Genre: drama
Director: Veiko Õunpuu
Scriptwriters: Veiko Õunpuu, Robert Kutvitz
Cinematographer: Mart Taniel E.S.C.
Main cast: Lauri Lagle, Jaanika Arum, laura Peterson, Peeter Volkonski, Roman Baskin
Producer: Katrin Kissa
Production company: Homeless Bob Production
Sales: Level K
To be released: April 2013
Production budget: 600 000 €
Looking for: festivals, distribution
Veiko Õunpuu (1972) has been a worker, a carpet salesman, a university dropout on three different occasions, a backbacker and a
painter. In 2006 he founded production company Homeless Bob
Production. His debut feature Autumn Ball premiered in Venice
IFF in 2007 and won Orizzonti Award. He received European Talent
Award for the script of The Temptation of St. Tony which later premiered internationally in Sundance in 2011 and was nominated for
the best production design in European Film Awards. He has been
chosen to be among 100 most intrigueging contemporary film directors in the book „10*10 in Film” by Phaidon Publishing.
Filmography: Empty (2006, short), Autumn Ball (2007), The
Temptation of St Tony (2010)
In development: The Last One - Bufo Film (finland)
The story of a promising young man with exciting career opportunities and a looming marital bliss.
How to live knowing that you might never know joy in day-today life? That you will never know the true pride from your work?
That there is no meaning, no goal, no hope for improvement? That
life will continue and you have to get used to it and also to the idea
that it might go on for a long time and, worst of all, it is almost impossible to put up with it in a dignified way? I am referring to shoddy housing, meagre food, poverty and
the extensive coarseness below and stolid indifference above, and
to the dreadful machinery that minces its way through the lives of
most of us, evermore efficient, ceasing little by little to even pretend that this is not our murder, packed and sold to us in variable
forms. Where should we head to, cattle for slaughter, and how is it
possible to participate in all this, without losing our humanity and
the last bits of our lust for life?
Fred (29), an aspiring writer, is thrust into the middle of these
questions – his girlfriend Susanna (23) is pregnant and intends to
keep the baby. 54
Production company
Homeless Bob Production was created by Veiko Õunpuu and Katrin Kissa in 2006.
Filmography: Autumn Ball (director Veiko Õunpuu, 2007), The
Temptation of St Tony (director Veiko Õunpuu, 2009), The Idiot (director Rainer Sarnet, 2011).
Films on development: Out of Fashion (documentary, director
Jaak Kilmi), The Last One (feature, Estonia-Finland co-production)
Sales
LevelK ApS
Gl.Kongevej 137B 3rd fl.
DK - 1850 Frederiksberg C.,
Denmark
Phone: +45 4844 3072
www.levelk.dk
Contact
Homeless Bob Production
Telliskivi 57-68,
Tallinn 10412, Estonia
Phone: +372 56 677 855
www.homelessbob.ee
Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange
73 min, HD, 16:9, Dolby Digital
Original title: Lisa Limone and Maroc Orange
Genre: family film, S3D animated stop-motion opera
Director: Mait Laas
Scriptwriters: Kati Kovacs, Peep Pedmanson
Cinematographer: Ragnar Neljandi
Animators: Märt Kivi, Triin Sarapik-Kivi
Main cast: Omar, Iiris Vesik, Peeter Volkonski
Producers: Andrus Raudsalu, Arvo Nuut, Kerdi Kuusik-Oengo,
Mark Lvoff
Production companies: Nukufilm (Estonia) Bufo Oy (Finland)
To be released: February-March 2013
Looking for: distribution
This 3D animated opera deals in a socially critical manner with the
topic of illegal immigrants fleeing from Africa to Europe and it is
also a story of impossible love between orange boy Maroc, a singing boat refugee, and lemon girl Lisa, who collects singing seashells
and dreams about love. Maroc is the brave hero-type, bound by
prejudice and poverty. Lisa is the daughter of a rich businessman
and tomato ketchup plantation owner. Here we have the fruitier
version of Romeo andJuliet – a 3D animatred operatic extravaganza.
Director
Mait Laas (1970) is Estonian animation artist, author and director.
He studied art at the Pedagogical University in Tallinn in 1989-1993
and completed MA degree in visual media at the Advanced School
for Fine Arts in Vienna during 1993-1994. MA in art studies at Tallinn
Pedagogical University followed in 1994-2000. Mait Laas has held
lectures and lead programmes about animation, organized animation work-shops, he has also opened exhibitions with his paintings
and graphics, his texts have been published in six books from 19932002.
Recent filmography: Miriam’s Gnome (pilot project of the Miriam-series, 2003), Lost and found (2004, compilation feature film
Gene+Ratio), Generatio (2005, director’s cut), Kings of the Time
(2005, 72-minute documentary with animation elements)
Production company
Nukufilm is the biggest animation (stop motion) studio in Northern Europe for its size of the studio, technical supplies and number
of employees. Currently there are 25 people working at the studio,
mostly qualified directors, artists, puppet-makers, docorations and
prop masters, electricians, animators, DOP-s, their assistants, editors and CGI graphists.
Nukufilm has several long-term partners from Finland, Norway
and Iceland, we have also cooperated with local and international
advertising agencies.
Films produced in Nukufilm are shown in the copmetition programmes of film festivals all over the world.
Nukufilm has produced over 200 different animantions and
cartoons during its 54 years. In a year Nukufilm produces 60 minutes of pure animation.
Sales
The Yellow Affair AB
Götgatan 9, SE-11646,
Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 645 1212
Mobile: +46 76 1993166 (Swe),
+358 50 548 1851 (Fin)
Skype: mpaasilinna
Contact
Nukufilm
Niine 11, Tallinn, Estonia
Phone: +372 641 4308
E-mail: kerdi@nukufilm.ee,
andrus@nukufilm.ee
www.nukufilm.ee
55
Living Images
135 min, HD, 16:9, Dolby Stereo SR
Original title: Elavad pildid
Genre: drama
Director: Hardi Volmer
Scriptwriter: Peep Pedmanson
Cinematographer: Kristjan-Jaak Nuudi
Main cast: Sandra Uusberg, Anu Lamp, Ita Ever, Priit Võigemast,
Tõnu Oja, Aarne Üksküla
Producer: Anneli Ahven
Production company: Exitfilm
To be released: beginning of 2013
Looking for: distribution, festivals
Living Images is a historical drama that takes us through the 20th
century by telling the stories of two Estonians, Helmi and Julius.
The film begins with their birth in the beginning of the century, in a
house belonging to Baltic Germans, and ends in the end of the century in a newly deliberated Estonia on the backdrop of the arrival
of neo-capitalist values. It is a grotesque approach on the difficult
turns in Estonian, as well as European history and involves a good
dose of both humour and tragedy.
signed TV-commercials and music videos, has designed books and
theatre posters.
Production company
Exitfilm is Estonian based production company founded in 1992,
owned by producer and director Peeter Urbla. Exitfilm is member
of the Estonian Film Producers Association, working closely with local funds, film community and especially with young talents. Longterm experience working with European companies gives Exitfilm a
good platform for international co-operating.
The strategy of Exitfilm is targeted to the ambitious projects
with high production value, both feature films and creative documentaries.
Exitfilm has produced and co-produced more than 10 feature
films, 40 shorts and documentaries and supplied with production
services 11 feature films from Nordic countries, England, Germany,
France.
Filmography: Men at Arms (2005), Shop of Dreams (2005),
Where Souls Go (2007), Taarka (2008), The Visitor (2008),
A Friend of Mine (2011)
Director
Hardi Volmer a filmmaker, art director, stage designer. After graduating form the State Art Institute he started to work in the film
studio Tallinnfilm as a puppet film director and production designer. At the same time he was active as a freelance scenographer in
almost all Estonian and some foreign theatres. Hardi Volmer has
directed and designed animated films, feature films, a documentaries, TV-serials, and TV-shows. He has made sets for theatrical
productions and directed several plays. He has staged and de-
56
Contact
Exitfilm
Madala 1, 10313 Tallinn,
Estonia
Phone: +372 5562 2041
E-mail: anneli@exitfilm.ee
In the Crosswind
90 min, HD, 1:1,85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Risttuules
Genre: drama
Director: Martti Helde
Scriptwriter: Martti Helde
Cinematographer: Erik Põllumaa
Main cast: Laura Peterson, Tarmo Song, Ingrid Isotamm, Einar Hillep, Mirt Peegel
To be released: autumn 2013
Project status: in production
Looking for: co-producer
June 14, 1941, 3 a.m. Over 40000 people from Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania are deported by Soviets to Siberia, among them philosophy student Erna, a happily married mother of a little girl. Her
husband is sent to prison camp, while Erna and her daughter are
dispatched together with other women and children to remote Siberian territories for fifteen years. Despite hunger, fear and humiliation, Erna never loses her sense of freedom and hope of returning
to homeland.
Based on true events and told through unconventional film
language.
www.inthecrosswind.com
Director
Martti Helde graduated from the Baltic Film & Media School as a
film director and continues Theatre & Film Directing MA studies at
Drama School of Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. Martti
has directed short films, TV-commercials, and Black Nights Film
Festival opening trailers. In the Crosswind is Martti’s first feature
film.
Selected filmography: Burnt Mistakes (short film) 2010, Thibault (short film) 2009
Producer
Piret Tibbo-Hudgins began her film production career with Estonian state film studio Tallinnfilm, having graduated from VGIK,
Moscow in 1985. Piret worked as a freelance filmmaker and music
journalist before co-founding Allfilm in 1995. Her career as a producer encompasses feature films (fiction and documentaries) and
she has extensive experience of international co-production. Piret
also lectures in audiovisual management and scriptwriting at the
Baltic Film & Media School.
Production company
Allfilm holds the position as one of the strongest and biggest production companies in Estonia. Since its establishment in 1995, Allfilm’s activity ranges from producing features and documentaries
to producing TV-commercials and music videos. In 17 years Allfilm
has completed more than 500 projects both domestically and internationally and has currently more than 10 projects in development or in production.
Sales
Deckert Distribution
Marienplatz 1,
D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
Phone: +49 341 215 66 38
www.deckert-distribution.com
Contact
Allfilm
Saue 11
Tallinn 10612,
Estonia
Phone: +372 6729070
www.allfilm.ee
57
A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
120 min, HD, 1:1,85, Dolby Stereo A
Original title: A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness
Genre: non-fiction
Directors: Ben Russell, Ben Rivers
Cinematographers: Ben Russell, Ben Rivers
Main cast: Robert A.A Lowe
Producers: Nadia Turincev, Indrek Kasela
Production company: Rouge International (FRA), MTÜ Must Käsi
(EST)
To be completed: March 2013
Looking for: sales agent, festivals, distribution
A Spell is a non-fiction feature film in three parts that refers directly
to the cinema of Jean Rouch (Chronicle of a Summer), Lisandro
Alonso (La Libertad) and Jean-Luc Godard (Sympathy for the
Devil), among others. Shot on color Super 16mm filmstock in the
farther reaches of Norway by artist/filmmakers Ben Rivers (UK)
and Ben Russell (USA), A Spell depicts a single character at three
disparate moments in his late 20s – as a hermit in the solitude of
the Arctic Circle, as an uncertain participant in a contemporary
“commune” in Estonia, and as the drummer for a neo-Pagan black
metal band. Taken as a whole, A Spell is a direct inquiry into what it
means to lead a spiritual existence in an increasingly secular world.
Directors
Ben Rivers (1972) is a contemporary experimental film maker
and artist based in London. His work has been shown in many film
festivals and galleries throughout the world, and won numerous
awards. His work ranges from themes about exploring unknown
wilderness territories to candid and intimate portrayals of real-life
subjects.
58
His first feature length film Two Years at Sea was presented in September 2011 in the Orizzonti section at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI prize.
Ben Russell (1976) is an American experimental filmmaker. Russell developed his reputation over the numerous shorts he made
throughout the 2000s, many as part of his Trypps series, and as the
curator of the Magic Lantern Cinema in Providence, Rhode Island.
In 2009, he made his acclaimed feature debut, Let Each One Go
Where He May, shot in Suriname.
Production companies
Rouge International is a production company founded in July
2007 by Julie Gayet and Nadia Turincev producing full length feature and documentary films such as: 8 Times Up by Xabi Molia
(San Sebastian, 2009), Fix ME by Raed Andoni (Sundance, 2010),
Bonsai by Cristian Jimenez (Cannes, 2011).
Must Käsi MTÜ (Black Hand) is a distribution and production
company founded in February 2010 by Indrek Kasela, that is mainly
focused on art-house films distribution in Baltic States. Black Hand
also operates cinema Sõprus in Tallinn that has served its audience
already for 55 years and has earned its street credibility as cinema
where no compromises are made. Contact
Rouge International
54 rue du Fbg Saint Honore, 75008 Paris, France
Phone: +33 9 5149 3844
www.rouge-internationa.com
BE coming soon / LAT
Escaping Riga
75 min, DCP, 1:2,35, Dolby Stereo SR
Producer
Original title: Escaping Riga
Genre: drama
Director: Davis Simanis
Scriptwriter: Davis Simanis
Cinematographer: Andrejs Rudzats
Main cast: Gints Grube, Mihails Karasikovs, Martins Pocs, Viktors
Puglejevs, Gustavs Briedis
Producers: Liga Gaisa, Inese Boga Grube
Production company: Mistrus Media
To be released: November 2013
Looking for: Sales agent, distribution
Liga Gaisa works as producer, director and editor. She has worked
as audiovisual project developer since 2004. She has participated
in several international film project and script development workshops and master classes (Ex-Oriente Films, ESoDoc, Four Corners, IDFAcademy Summer School a.o). In autumn 2011 she premiered her first documentary The End Game as director and got
INTERFILM Award for the Best Baltic Documentary at IFF Arsenals.
Education: MA, Baltic Film and Media School (Tallinn, Estonia) and
the Latvian Academy of Culture
Two men are born on the same street around the same time thus
due to turmoils of the first half of the 20th century their lives are
separated. Escaping Riga is a fascinating journey that follows
twists and turns of a peculiar and tragic friendship of two geniuses
– the Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein and the British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin.
Production company
Mistrus Media was established in 2000 and focuses on production of creative documentaries for international audience. A couple
of years ago the company started to produce fiction films.
Mistrus Media is currently engaged in production of several documentaries and a full length fiction film.
Director
Davis Simanis works as film director, scriptwriter and editor, as
well as works as a lecturer of film theory in several universities. He
has received Grand Prix awards (Sounds Under the Sun, 2010) at
the festivals Kameraton and Zlata Praha. He also was awarded for
Best Debut (Version. LNO, 2007) and FIPRESCI Award (Valkyrie
Limited, 2009) at the Latvian National Film Festival Lielais Kristaps. Contributing writer for the magazine Rigas Laiks.
Education: Mag.Phil., University of Latvia; currently following
PhD programme at the Latvian Academy of Culture.
Contact
Mistrus Media
Blaumana Iela 11/13-12, LV-1011
Riga, LatviaPhone:+371 6731 3314
mistrusmedia.lv
59
Graduation Year
100 min, HD, 16:9, Dolby Stereo A
Original title: Izlaiduma Gads
Genre: drama
Director: Andris Gauja
Scriptwriter: Lauris Gundars
Cinematographer: Aleksandrs Grebnevs
Main cast: Inga Alsina, Marcis Klatenbergs, Andrey Smolyakov
Producers: Andris Gauja, Guna Stahovka
Production companies: Riverbed, Horosho Productions
To be released: May 2013
Looking for: post-production financing, sales agent, distribution
produced director Rolands Kalnihs’s feature Bitter Wine (2007),
which won a Lielais Kristaps award for best supporting actress at
the 2008 Latvian national film awards. She is producer on the feature in development The Apartments, for which scriptwriter Martinš Slishans won the 2012 Krzysztof Kieslowski Award at Cannes
Film Festival for best screenplay from Eastern and Central Europe.
She has produced also award winning documentaries and a animation film.
Graduation Year tells the story of Zane, a young Latvian teacher.
A true idealist, she tries to live her life in the most meaningful way
possible. She takes her mission as a teacher seriously and works
hard to help her students develop their talents. Even so, as for
many younger teachers, it’s hard for Zane to keep her distance
from her class -- the young people soon become a sort of family
for her. When she realizes she’s falling in love with one of them, the
others start to feel left out. She faces a stark choice between her
personal happiness and what society expects.
Director
Andris Gauja graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture’s
scriptwriting and dramaturgy programme. He began making documentary films, experimenting with documentary and feature film
genre elements. Graduation Year is the director’s feature debut.
Producer
Guna Stahovska has worked as the film development producer at
Platforma Studio since 2004, participating in the creation of films
such as Defenders of Riga (2007) and Rudolf’s Gold (2010). She
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Contact
Riverbed
Andrejostas 4A, Riga, LV-1050,
Latvia
Phone: +37129473007
www.riverbed.lv
European Dream Team 1935
120 min, 1:2,39, Dolby Digital
Original title: Sapnu Komanda 1935
Genre: drama
Director: Aigars Grauba
Scriptwriter: Franciska Cimare, Aigars Grauba, Andrejs Ekis
Cinematographer: Gvido Skulte
Main cast: Janis Amanis, Inga Alsina, Andris Bulis, Viktors Ellers,
Janis Vimba, Martins Liepa
Producer: Andrejs Ekis
Production company: Platforma Filma
To be released: November 2012
Project status: completed
Looking for: distribution
the time has come for the company to expand into international
film market.
Producer
Andrejs Ekis has a long and rich history as a film, TV and stage
producer and writer.
He was the founder of one of the biggest TV stations in Latvia
– Latvian Independent Television and is the creator of some of the
most popular TV programs in Latvia. He has produced such films
as Rudolf’s Gold (2010), Defenders of Riga (2007) and Dangerous
Summer (2000), all of which are some of the biggest film projects
in Latvia. He is also the founder film studio ‘Cinevilla’ which is the
only open air film decoration in Baltic States.
European Dream Team 1935 tells about a very exciting event in Latvian, as well as European, history - first European
Championship in basketball and Latvian team’s achievements
in it. Dream Team is not a film only about basketball. It is a
film about team spirit, making hard choices, dreams and victory, about a shattered Europe after World War I, rebuilding
its values and seeking unity.
Production company
Platforma was established in 2003. Main activities of the company are production of feature films, videos, commercials, as well as
renting out film equipment.
Since 2003, Platforma cooperates with – Cinevilla Studio,
which is responsible for technical production and services, and
Platforma Film, which is responsible for creative development and
production of its own films. The company is responsible for two
largest national blockbusters in recent history Defenders of Riga
(2007) and Dangerous Summer (2003). With the success at home
Contact
Platforma Filma
17 Elijas St., Riga, Latvia, LV-1050
Phone: +371 670 70 205
Email: info@platformafilm.com,
aija.ansone@platformafilm.com
www.platformafilm.com
61
Mushroomers
75 min, HB, 16:9, Dolby Digital
Original title: Senatojai
Genre: comedy
Director: Ivars Tontegode
Scriptwriter: Ivars Tontegode
Cinematographer: Janis Skulme
Main cast:Andrejs Mozeiko, Mareks Balmanis, Kristians Karelins,
Sandra Zvigule, Dace Everss
Producer: Roberts Vinovskis
Production company: Locomotive Productions
To be released: March 8, 2013
Looking for: sales agent
Peter is just another peter, so very ordinary. He works at the office
where colleagues make fun of him, the boss makes sexual advances and the sick mother harasses him at home. Step by step his life
becomes completely unbearable. Once by a chance Peter happens
to try magic mushrooms and this adventure turns into new move
towards a different life.
from Baltic States thus looking for a fresh sight and new path in
Baltic movie production.
Producer
Roberts Vinovskis has produced a number of award winning films.
Currently working with feature films – M.O.J. and Mushroomers at
the stage of post - production and feature drama Sanatorium of
Ashes in stage of pre-production.
Roberts Vinovskis also runs filming equipment rental and
post-production house BBrental.eu serving about 4-5 feature films
across the Baltic’s and Russia every year and distribution company
Best Baltic - main DVD distributor for films made in Baltic countries. Roberts is a member of the Latvian Filmmakers‘ Union and
the Latvian Association of Film Producers.
Filmography as producer: Philosopher Escaped (feature
documentary, 2005), Working Class Ballet (feature documentary,
2009), Valkyrie Limited (feature documentary, 2009), People Out
There (feature, 2012)
Director
Ivars Tontegode (1983), studied graphic design at Art Academy
of Latvia, then film directing at Latvian Academy of Culture. His
first short film Obsession received the award as Best short film at
Latvian National film festival Lielais Kristaps 2009. Mushroomers
is Ivar’s first feature film.
Production company
Film studio Locomotive Productions was founded in 1999. The
studio’s principal activities are focused on fiction and creative documentaries. The studio’s strength is in discovering young talents
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Contact
Locomotive Productions
Bruninieku str. 28 - 57, Riga,
LV - 1011, Latvia
Phone: +371 6729 8538
E-mail: offi[email protected]
www.locomotive.lv
BE coming soon / LIT
Santa
90 min, HD, 1:2,35
Original title: Santa
Genre: drama
Director: Marius Ivashkevicius
Scriptwriter: Marius Ivashkevicius
Cinematographer: Tuomo Hutri
Main cast: Tommi Korpela, Sandra Dauksaite, Ovidijus Petravicius
Producers: Kestutis Drazdauskas, Asta Valciukaite, Joonas Berghall, Petri Rossi
Production companies: ARTBOX, OKTOBER, Cineworks
To be released: December 2012
Looking for: Sales agent, distribution
commercial ads. Artbox is working with upcoming talent and already established directors aiming to produce and co-produce
films of wide international appeal. Films produced by Artbox were
screened and have received awards in numerous international film
festivals: International Venice Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand, Manheim, Bilbao, Siena, Trouville, Biaritz, Prague, Brno and others.
A trip to Lapland leads to immense changes in the life of a single
mother and her seven- year- old son. Love, hope and efforts to save
the life of the little boy will change dramatically the lives of the two
grown-ups.
Producers
Kestutis Drazdauskas graduated from the University of Vilnius.
He has been working as producer since 1998. In 2003 he founded
ARTBOX where he has produced a number of award winning films.
Asta Valciukaite received MA in Cultural Management & Cultural Policy, at Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, UNESCO Chair. She has
been working as location manager and production manager since
2003. She works as a producer at ARTBOX since 2006.
Production company
Established in 2003, Artbox is one of the leading production companies in the Baltics producing feature films, documentaries and
Contact
ARTBOX
Labdariu str. 5, LT-01120 Vilnius,
Lithuania
Phone: +370 6151 0699
www.artbox.lt
63
The Excursionist
109 min, 35mm, 1:1,85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Ekskursante
Genre: historical drama
Director: Audrius Juzenas
Scriptwriter: Pranas Morkus
Cinematographer: Ramunas Greicius
Main cast: Sergej Garmas, Raisa Riazanova, Igorj Savockin, Aliona
Ivcenko, Anastasija Marcenkaite, Viktor Dobronravov, Ksenija
Rapoport, Dmitrij Godsdiner
Producer: Algirdas Semeskavicius
Production company. Cinemark
To be released: March 2013
Financing in place: 900 000 €
Looking for: sales, distribution, festivals
studios „Warner Bross“, „Twentieth Century Fox“ and „Columbia
Tristar“. CineMark was the official representative of the companies
mentioned for 12 years.
By its activity CineMark has stopped Lithuanian cinema theatres from complete downfall, getting back their spectators. CineMark has created a serious base for new cinema centers and general film renaissance in Lithuania.
That is why today CineMark is coming back to its main and primal activity – production and distribution of Lithuanian films. So,
the company CineMark is proud to present for your attention one
of its most significant project – a new feature film Eksurante (The
Excursionist).
The power of Belief and Love makes wonders
This film is based on really incredible story of 11 years old girl
from Baltic’s, who escaped exile prisoners Trans-Siberian train on
the way to Gulag in 50-ties and made her 6000 km long and dangerous, full of adventures way back home. This is a film about hope
and destiny, love and friendship, and immeasurable humanity of
people.
Production company
Cinema company CineMark was established in April, 1992 to implement Lithuanian film production and distribution.
CineMark did its best and implemented several important themes
of new and previous times. The full feature Žemes keleiviai (Earth
Travelers) was born in 1993. In 1994-1995 Menulio Lietuva (Lunar
Lithuania) followed.
CineMark was the first to start distributing Hollywood films
in Lithuania presenting to viewers films of the biggest world film
64
Contact
Cinemark
Konarskio 49-606, Vilnius,
Lietuva
Phone: +370 6994 7910
We Will Riot
80 min, HD, 1:1,85, Stereo
Original title: We Will Riot
Genre: coming of age drama
Director: Romas Zabarauskas
Scriptwriter: Romas Zabarauskas
Cinematographer: Ville Piippo
Main cast: Ebeneezer Nii Sowah, Beata Tiskevic, Sharunas Zenkevicius
Producer: Romas Zabarauskas
Production company: Naratyvas
To be released: February 2013
Looking for: co-producer, sales, distribution, festivals
Luke is an up-and-coming DJ from an affluent New York family with
a Lithuanian father and an African-American mother. When Luke
hears from an estranged grandmother in Lithuania, he defies his
parents and decides to visit this far-away country, flying straight to
the capital city Vilnius. He falls in love with the city, a rebellious girl
called Marta, and the local music scene - the beatmakers - promoted by an aggressive gay manager, Andy.
Luke’s grandma’s connections get him a deal with the municipality to become the manager of a new nightclub, and he takes up
the challenge... but the deal turns out to be poisoned, forcing Luke
to rebel in ways he never imagined.
We Will Riot portrays the innovative Lithuanian beatmaking
scene alongside the shady dealings of corrupt governments. Music production and spontaneous political protest explode together
onscreen, fuelled by the internet and access to new technology in
Eastern Europe.
Director and producer
Romas Zabarauskas, openly gay 21-year-old Lithuanian film di-
rector captivated international audiences and caused a national
scandal with his debut short film Porno Melodrama, a Berlinale
2011 Panorama selection confronting Lithuania’s homophobic legislation. Zabarauskas is currently studying film at Hunter College,
New York City.
Production company
Naratyvas is a newly established company of Romas Zabarauskas
aimed to produce independent politically engaged yet entertaining
fiction films.
Contact
Naratyvas
Konarskio 10a-19
Phone: +370 6198 6027
65
Name in the Dark
85 min, REDCAM, 16:9, Dolby Stereo A
Original title: Vardas Tamsoje
Genre: drama
Director: Agne Marcinkeviciute
Scriptwriter: Agne Marcinkeviciute
Main cast: Neringa Varnelyte, Gediminas Storpirstis, Gintaras
Liutkevicius, Jurgita Jurkute, Deimena Drasutyte
Producer: ZIivile Gallego
Production company: Fralita Films
To be released: October 2013
Financing in place: missing 30 000 € for post-production
Project status: in production
Looking for: co-producer, sales, distribution, festivals
A small town investigator’s job is to untangle cases, which, more
than often are meaningless and egoistic to absurd. From time to
time she varies her life with a glass of wine, in most cases more
than one. Memories both painfull and exciting stream into her
blood alongside with the wine. In those memories – a tragic experience of love for her music teacher who in a way has raised,
educated her and then one day simply dissapeared. Suddenly her
routine is shaken by a mysterious murder of a teenage girl. When
investigating this case she is forced to face her own past, as the
main suspect is her ex lover - the music teacher. Just beeing able
to deal with the past she’ll be able to look in the future.
Director
Agne Marcinkeviciute graduated with an MA in TV directing from
Lithuanian Music Academy. From 1993 to 2003 she worked at Lithuanian Film Studios on film projects as director’s assistant, film set administrator, and script supervisor. From 1997 to 2004 she was theatre
studio director at Culture Centre of Vilnius Pedagogical University.
66
Marcinkeviciute has acted as program director and editor for
several TV programs at Lithuanian National Television and Vilnius
TV. She has also worked as journalist for the magazines Tavo Vaikas, Vyras ir Moteris, newspaper Amerikos Lietuvis and Bernardinai.lt. Since 1999 she has written and directed short films, radio
plays and more than 10 documentary films.
Production company
Fralita Films was established in 2009 by producer Zivile Gallego,
where she is currently working with documentary and feature film
production. Zivile Gallego took participation in EAVE 2011 workshop.
Currently in production: Name in the Dark.
In development: Emilia by Donatas Ulvydas. Sangaile by Alante Kavaite, in co-production with Les Films d’Antoine (France).
Ticket to Dublin by Dalia Survilaite.
Filmography: 2 Cups of Yogurt (2011) – a short fiction, by
Audrius Mickevicus. Lithuanian national awards nominee for best
short film. 7 Sins (2010) a documentary by Kristina Inciuraite. Journey Through Lithuania (2010) a documentary by Vaidotas Digimas
with participation of David Ellis. Dance in the Desert (2009) a documentary about famous Lithuanian writer Jurga Ivanauskaite, by
Agne Marcinkeviciute.
Contact
Fralita Films
Šiltadaržio g. 6, Vilnius LT 01124, Lithuania
Phone: +370 64 33 00 22
www.fralitafilms.com
BE coming soon / FIN
August Fools
100 min, DCP, 1:2,35
Director
Original title: Mieletön elokuu
Genre: comedy
Director: Taru Mäkelä
Scriptwriter: Raija Talvio
Cinematographer: Jouko Seppälä F.S.C
Main cast: Kati Outinen, Miroslav Etzler, Elena Leeve, Krystof Hadek
Producer: Markku Flink/Kinosto
Co-producers: Michal Kollar, Viktor Taus/Fog’n Desire Films (Cz),
Knut Skoglund/Pomor Film (NOR)
Production company: Kinosto
To be released: Autumn 2013
Looking for: sales agent
Taru Mäkelä has a successful career in directing comedies with a
social satire and sharp humor. Latest film Storage, an (un) romantic comedy about people in a paint store, has been a box office hit in
Finland in 2012. Little Sister, her first feature film, was nominated as
the Finnish competitor to the contest of the best Nordic film 2000.
Elsa (Kati Outinen), a middle-aged milliner and part-time clairvoyant runs a smartest little hat-shop in the heart of Helsinki 1962. She
has total control of her life-until the man she once loved and lost
suddenly reappears from the past – and from the dead. Jan (Miroslav Etzler), is in town to perform at the Festival with his Czech
dance orchestra. For more than two decades Elsa has believed the
man to be dead. Initially, Elsa wants to stay away from Jan –and
especially from the Festival, which for her is just another attempt
by the International Communists to brainwash the good, unsuspecting citizens of Western countries, such as Finland. But Jan is
persistent, persuasive, and charming. The intoxicating blend of hot
August nights, music, dance and the ice-cold political paranoia of
the Age of the Iron Curtain form the circumstances in which Elsa
has to make her final choice. Will she yield to the wishes of the Finnish Police, who, under pressure from the KGB, wants her to track
down a Czechoslovakian defector or will she opt for an entirely new
life herself?
Production company
Producer
Markku Flink has completed several international co-productions
both documentaries and feature films. The latest film is Finnish-Swedish coproduction Miss Blue Jeans, directed by Matti Kinnunen, which was released in Finland August 2012. An Eurimages
supported and awarded romantic comedy Garbage Prince (dir.
Raimo O Niemi) opened domestically July 2011.
Mäkelä family started film business 1920 by producing and distributing films. Nowadays Kinosto produces both drama and documentaries for international audiences.
Contact
Markku Flink
Producer
Mo bile +358 40 5166 504
E-mail: markku.flink@kinosto.fi
www.kinosto.fi
67
BE coming soon / FIN
8-ball
107 min, HD
Original title: 8-pallo
Genre: crime/ drama/ thriller
Director: Aku Louhimies
Scriptwriter: Jari Olavi Rantala
Cinematographer: Mika Orasmaa
Main cast: Jessica Grabowsky, Mikko Leppilampi, Pirkka-Pekka
Petelius, Eero Aho, Mikko Kouki
Producers: Tero Kaukomaa, Marko Antila
Production company: Blind Spot Pictures
Sales: Nordisk Film To be released: February 2013
Pirkko has served her sentence in prison and embraces freedom
with her eight month old little girl. She’s determined to start over,
it’s impossible to make mistakes anymore. Her ex-boyfriend shows
up, re-igniting the passion but also casting shadows for the future.
But Pirkko is not going to give up, not this time. She’s gonna hold on
to her new life, no matter what the cost.
Director
Aku Louhimies.
Selected filmography: Naked Harbour (Vuosaari, 2012, feature film) - awards: Festoria, Portugal: Best Actress (Amanda Pilke), Cinematography (Tuomo Hutri), CICAE Nordic Film Days, Luebeck: Interfilm Church Prize; Tears of April (Käsky, 2008, feature
film) - released in theatres in several countries including Japan,
Greece and Germany; Frozen City (Valkoinen Kaupunki, 2006,
feature film) - awards: Karlovy Vary, Flanders International 2006;
Frozen Land (Paha maa, 2004, feature film) - awards: Göteborg FF,
Sweden 2005, Best Film and 3 other awards / Moscow IFF, Jury
special prize / Athens 2005, Best Screenplay / 2005 Jussi Awards
68
in Finland, 7 awards including Best Director, Best Film and Best
Screenplay); Lovers and Leavers (Kuutamolla, 2002, feature film)
- awards: (Finnish Film and culture Festival, Berlin , Germany, Audience’s choice award, / Cineques FF, Official Maverick Competition,
Best Drama / San Jose, California, USA DurangoFF, Colorado, /
Restless (Levottomat, 2000, first feature film)
Production company
Blind Spot Pictures is a Finnish production company established
in 1997 by ACE-producer Tero Kaukomaa. They produce and
co-produce feature-films for international markets. Completed
films include Iron Sky, Jade Warrior, a Finnish / Chinese kung-fu
film by AJ Annila, Man’s Job by Aleksi Salmenperä, Dancer in the
Dark by Lars von Trier (Zentropa / Denmark), Rainbowmaker by
Oscar nominated Nana Djordjadze (27 Film Production / Germany) and A Rational Solution by Jörgen Bergmark (Hepp Film / Sweden) as well as Golden Globe nominee Everlasting Moments by Jan
Troell.
Their films have been sold around the world by such companies as Rezo Film, Celluloid Dreams, Match Factory, Bavaria, Trust
Film etc. Blind Spot Pictures has been co-producing with countries
like China, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Holland, UK, Italy, Sweden
and Russia.
Currently Blind Spot Pictures has several features in development, and the latest film, 8-ball will be released in February 2013.
Contact
Blind Spot Pictures
Pursimiehenkatu 26 G 4
00150 Helsinki, FINLAND
Phone: +358 50 388 9479
www.blindspot.fi
Focus
on Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan:
Film Industry Figures – 2011
Number of films produced:
Number of films supported by the state:
Average production budget
(million USD):
Number of films released:
Number of national films released:
Gross box-office (million USD):
Gross box office of national films
(million USD):
Market share of national films:
Admissions (million people):
Number of cinemas:
Number of screens:
Average ticket price (USD):
“KAZAKHFILM” today
•
30
20
2 million USD
240
20
60 million USD
5 million USD
10%
11 million people
92
202
5 USD
“KAZAKHFILM” JSC named after Shaken Aimanov
Kazakhfilm is the main film production company of Kazakhstan,
supported by the Ministry of culture & state budget.
Founded: 1941
Location: Almaty, Kazakhstan
Activity: Film production
Main directions:
•
production of feature, documentary and animation films
•
producing
•
technical services
•
equipment rent
•
production and rent of costumes
•
construction and rent of scenery
•
construction and rent of shooting stages
•
scouting of locations
•
castings
•
film distribution
•
international cooperation: festivals, film education,
days of cinema etc.
•
film projects development
Area: 17 ha
70
•
•
•
•
•
•
The largest film studio in Central Asia providing a full cycle of
film production and related services in accordance with all international quality standards;
State support;
Regularly updated material and technical base, with the usage of leading brands: DOLBY, RedOne, Mac, ARRI, MotionCapture, Dino, Par, SpaceLight, Dedolight, GFM, Tulip, VarioPraims, Cooke etc.;
Convenient geographical and territorial location, with favourable climate and proximity to the scenic and various landscapes;
Involving the best local staff in the projects – technical and
creative professionals;
Regular festival participation, international cooperation and
work at the largest film business platforms of the world;
The rapidly growing experience of co-production: Russia,
France, Turkey, USA, Italy, Germany etc.
www.kazakhfilmstudios.kz
BE coming soon / KAZ
Harmony Lessons
120 min, 35 mm, 1:1,85, Dolby Digital
Original title: Uroki Garmonii
Genre: drama
Director: Emir Baigazin
Scriptwriter: Emir Baigazin
Cinematographer: Aziz Zhambakiyev
Main cast: Timur Aidarbekov
Producer: Anna Katchko
Production company: Kazakhfilm
To be released: 2013
Looking for: sales agent, promotion support
Following a public humiliation in front of his classmates during a
medical check-up, a boy named Asan (13) falls ill with anankastia, a
mental disease with persuasive passion for perfectionism.
Aslan is a student at a high crime rate village school in Kazakhstan. The dirty criminal world of the school conflicts drastically with
Aslan’s perfectionism and sense for beauty and purity.
Aslan sees all the evil in the school gang leader Bolat (13), who
actually caused Aslan’s humiliation. Bolat is part of the established
power system at school: he collects money from younger kids bitting them up severely.
Out of good motives to rid his school of crime, Aslan decides
to kill Bolat...
Director
Emir Baigazin graduated - Kazakh National Academy of Arts. Selected through all Asian competition to train at the Asian Film Academy, South Korea. Participant - Berlinale Talent Campus (2008).
Filmography: Cheerful and Offended (2006, screenwriter, director, cameraman) - Best Director award at the 2007 Didar Festival.
Steppe (2min., 2007, screenwriter, director, cameraman - Asian
72
Film Academy, South Korea, Berlinale Talent Campus 2008. Virgins
(2007, screenwriter, one of five directors).
Fatshedder (20 min., 2008, screenwriter, director) - Grand prix
of the 2008 Didar Festival, Special Prize of the 2008 Stars of Shaken FF, Special Prize of the MIFF and Eurasia 2008, Special ‘Mention
d’honnour’ of 2008 Milan IFF, Special Prize of the 2009 Film Camp
Art House FF, Participant of 5th Sedicicorto Film Festival in Forli,
Participant of the 28th VGIK IFF in Moscow. Jean’s Video Diary (28
min, 2009, screenwriter, director) - Winner of the 2009 Award in
the Best Debut nomination.
Producer
Born in Moscow, Anna Katchko went to school in Germany, and
graduated from the Faculty of TV and Film at Sorbonne University,
Paris. She completed a producer’s course at the NYFA in New York
and EAVE 2008.
Producer’s credits: Russian-American drama Perestroika (2009), Russian-Swedish action Newsmakers (2009), German-Russian-Kazakh Baikonur (2011), Kazakh historical epic drama Myn Bala (2012), Russian-Irish Moscow never sleeps(2013),
Kazakh-German drama HARMONY LESSONS (2013).
Anna is one of the founders of Moscow Business Square, the
yearly Film Business Platform at Moscow International FF and of
Spotlight: New Kazakh Cinema, co-production event at the Eurasia
International Film Festival in Almaty.
Contact
Kazakhfilm
Al-Farabi 176, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Phone: +7 (727) 302 16 42
E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected]
kazakhfilmstudios,kz
Hunting the Phantom
100 min, 35 mm, 1:1,85, Dolby Digital
Director
Original title: Okhota za prizrakom
Genre: action, sci-fi, adventure
Director: Marina Kunarova
Scriptwriter: Marina Kunarova
Cinematographers: Curtis Petersen, Azamat Dulatov, Vyacheslav
Korpachev
Main cast: Kristanna Loken, Armand Assante, Sandzhar Madiyev,
Nikita presnyakov, Assel Sagatova, Kamilla Yermekova
Producers: Yernar Malikov
Production company: Kazakhfilm, MG Production
Director, scriptwriter, producer Marina Kunarova (1973), graduated from Almaty Technological Institute and Institute of Management and Consulting, also attended Director’s Courses in Almaty.
Filmography: Lave / Лавэ (2008, scriptwriter), The Reverse
Side / Obratnaya Storona (2009, scriptwriter), 999 (2010, director,
scriptwriter), PEERS (2010, TV Serial 43 series, scriptwriter)
Awards and Nominations of the 999 film: - Best Actress – Berdyansk FF, Kiev, 2011; Official Selection – Night Horizons – ZLIN FF,
2011; The Wisest Film – Artek FF, 2010; Best Actress – Kamila Yermekova – Artek FF, 2010; Official Selection – SCHLINGEL FF, 2010;
Winner – Best Foreign Film – LA Femme FFl, 2010
The action takes place in the near future. The great invention of
a global corporation, code-named “Phantom”, ensures the crime
eradication and security in the world.
But this is only a visible side of the “Phantom”: the corporation’s
sinister plan is hidden in establishing total control over the people’s
mind. Their aim is to change the march of history, to turn society
into obedient puppets who will never know that their mind is under
control.
The “Phantom” gradually breaks people’s lives, but nobody
can understand what’s happening as long as the “Phantom” destroys the life of two lovers – Timur and Kira. She is charged with
murder, and he must break the law to save her life.
The man, whom he considered a criminal, an American hacker Zack, unexpectedly helps him to find the truth and uncover the
conspiracy of a global corporation.
The “Phantom” has destroyed everything Zack believed in.
Those whom he loved, they betrayed him, and whom he hated,
became his friend. And now they are together to save the world
from the madness. However, are they protected from the madness
themselves?
Producer
Yernar Malikov is a co-owner of MG Production company, in 2000
founded his first film company Alem Asia, which produced mainly
documentaries and social films.
MG Production was formed only in 2005 and focused on action
films. As a producer Yernar worked on 25 projects including both
documentaries and action films and is one of the most successful
producers in Kazakhstan.
Contact
Kazakhfilm
Phone: +7 (727) 302 16 42
73
The Book of Legends: Mysterious Forest
90 min, HD, 1:1,85, Dolby Stereo SR
Original title: Kniga legend: tainstvennyi les
Genre: fantasy, comedy, adventure
Director: Akhat Ibrayev
Scriptwriter: Akhat Ibrayev
Cinematographers: Alexander Plotnikov
Main cast: Alisher Khairov, Kuan Lekerov, Zhan Baizhanbayev
Producers: Serik Zhubandykov, Akhat Ibrayev
Production company: Kazakhfilm
Bakha and Takha are dreamers, hooligans, fans of adventures, ancient Turkic legends and myths. They are the sons of a prominent
businessman. Once, after reading a book about that the ancient
queen of the Amazons the boys decided to have a journey to the
magic forest and help the Queen of the Amazons. They hoped the
Queen will help them to revive their mother.
One day their angry stepmother hired two bandits and asked
them to kidnap these boys. The bandits decided to bring two little hooligans far away to the forest. No one knew that boys were
dreaming about this journey for so long!
After a very long trip Bakha and Takha found themselves into
a wonderful fantasy world with many fairy-tale characters: the majestic queen of the Amazons, evil Erlik – God of the Underworld,
Underworld guard – Bear, sly and nasty snake Magic Swan and
other. This is a story about the incredible adventures of two brothers who decided to fight the evil forces and return their mother, history of the struggle between good and evil, love, mythical gods and
mythical figures. All of us should dream and love.
Director and producer
Ahat Ibraev (1987) studied in America for five years. Two years
74
studied in Wisconsin state as a director on TV. Director, screenwriter and editor of “Theatre - near your home” (the film about theater
and art in general), this program was broadcasted in Wisconsin.
For three years he studied as a film direction and film producer in
Chicago in the Columbia College, as a participant of the presidential
Bolashak program.
Author of 21st short film. The last of them, Adagio about the
Kazakh boy which was adopted by americans, earned recognition
among critics of Chicago, played the Eurasia Festival 2010.
Akhat Ibraev participated in several feature films “Class A” and
“B” in Hollywood and Chicago.
In 2009 he returned to Kazakhstan, at the end of training. He
worked as an administrator of Kazakhstan side on the Kazakh-Russian project Irony of Love with Assel Sagatova and Chadov.
He worked as the second director and organized the whole
filming process and the preparatory Films The Tale of the Pink Bunny. He was a DoP 3rd and 4th season of the sitcom Aynalayn.
Contact
Kazakhfilm
Phone: +7 (727) 302 16 42
When the Dreams Come True
80 min, HD, 1:1,85
Original title: Kogda sbivayutsya metchti
Genre: comedy
Director: Viktor Vilks, Slavomiras Leontjev
Scriptwriter: Savva Mivaev
Cinematographer: Alexander Rubanov
Main cast: Aisulu Azimbayeva
Producers: Sino Alizoda
Production company: Kazakhfilm, Vox Pictures
Today, Kazakhfilm, the state owned company, remains the biggest studio and the only state funding body for the film industry
in Kazakhstan. JCS Kazakhfilm is also the largest film company in
Central Asia. In recent years, JCS Kazakhfilm is yearly producing /
co-producing about 25-30 projects, including feature films, documentaries and animation.
JCS Kazakhfilm has also produced many internationally acclaimed film productions such as: Nomad: the Warrier by Sergey
Bodrov (Golden Globe nomination 2005), Kelin by Ermek Tursunov
(Oscar shortlist 2010), Gift to Stalin by Rustem Abdrashev (Pusan
IFF 2009), Sunny Days by Nariman Turebaev (Locarno IFF 2011),
Student by Darejan Omirbaev (Cannes Certain Regard 2012) and
many more.
www.kazakhfilmstudios.kz
The main character falls in love with girl, but she did not respond.
To attract her attention he impersonates as a teacher at her university. Each day, the main character is closer and closer to disclosure.
Series of comic events haunts our hero throughout the adventure.
Director
Viktor Vilks - director, VFX specialist. Collaborated with Bazelevs
(production studio of Timur Bekmambetov) and with Zemfira, Bi2, Ivan Urgant, Kasta and others.
Awards: 1998 - Music video of the year on MTV Russia: Mumiy
Troll “Ranetka”; 2001 - Music video of the year on MTV Russia: Bi-2
“Moya Lyubov”, 2002 - Music video of the year on MTV Russia:
Zemfira “Beskonechnost”
Production company
JCS Kazakhfilm was founded in 1941 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The
studio has merged with the biggest Russian film studios evacuated
to Kazakhstan during the war period: Mosfilm and Lenfilm. It has
been active in film production ever since and has been producing
hundreds of titles in Kazakhstan.
Contact
Kazakhfilm
Phone: +7 (727) 302 16 42
75
PLENARY PRESENTATIONS AND ROUNDTABLES
The International Market and Working with Sales Agents
Sunday, November 25, 14.00-16:00
The International Market and Working with Sales Agents focuses
on finding a suitable sales agent with plenty of tips how, when and
where to start, legal issues, delivery lists, financial terms, festival
distribution, marketing, perspective, etc.
Presenter: Frédéric Corvez
Frédéric Corvez started his career at Equinoxe (Sony
Pictures Intl and Canal +) where he was in charge
of the international development. A member of the
reading group at Studio Canal, he contributed to the
creation of Kanpaï Distribution. Then, he joined suc-
cessively MK2 and Celluloid Dreams where he directed and developed the TV department.
In 2004, he founded Urban Distribution Intl (formerly known
as UMEDIA), a World Sales and Distribution Company. In 2006,
he created GOMEDIA, a post-production company specialized in
post-production, dubbing and subtitling.
Frédéric Corvez is also the founder and manager of Urban
Factory, an independent company dedicated to domestic
production and international coproduction’s.
In 2011, UDI has also extended its activities to theatrical
distribution in France with a new arm: Urban Distribution.
Music Rights
Monday, November 26, 11:00-13:00
Presenter: Laurence Kaye
Licensing music is never straightforward and in this session
Laurence Kaye will endeavour to address some of the key
issues relating to music rights for synchronisation, as
well as considering how best music can be used as a
promotional and marketing tool within a film.
This will be a ‘round table’ questions and answers
session involving participants and focussing on producers’ individual projects and the relevance of music
to their productions.
I hope to share some of the knowledge gathered from a 25 year
career running the licensing divisions within companies such
as Virgin, Polygram and Universal as well as working as an
independent music consultant and supervisor.
European Distributors’ Roundtable
Wednesday, November 28t, 10:00-16:30
Roundtable moderator: Nikolaj Nikitin
The Baltic distribution round-table is a direct continuation
of the STEP IN initiative on distribution in the Eastern and
Central European countries that took place earlier this
year in Locarno. Debates and discussions on distribution in these regions proved that the Baltic distribution
companies have similar issues to tackle and our problems are often different from our neighbouring Eastern
and Central European colleagues. We acknowledged
that the main complications lie in the relations with Russian buyers who still insist that the Baltic countries are “their
76
territory” as the former Soviet Union. In this round-table we bring
together independent distributors of mainly European and auteur
cinema from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to analyse the situation
and make suggestions for improvement. Also participating are
Russian buyers who acquire the Baltic distribution rights,
and European sales agents who sometimes sell directly
to the Baltic distribution companies and sometimes deal
with Russians. The round-table is organised with the
help of the Industry Office of Festival del Film Locarno.
PLENARY PRESENTATIONS AND ROUNDTABLES
Producers and Moviegoers: A Film Marketing Strategy
Monday, November 26, 14:30-16:30
This seminar is conceived for junior and semi-junior producers
preferably having experienced at least the development stage of
a feature film. It has been developed by The Film Agency (Sarah
Calderón—www.thefilmagency.eu) and EAVE—European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, one of the leading programmes in producers’
training in the world (www.eave.org). The seminar has been
included in more than 15 film workshops, among them the
EAVE European Producers Workshop in Luxembourg,
EAVE Puentes in Gijón and Montevideo, Rotterdam Film
Lab and Making Waves Programme by the London Film
School at the Berlinale, along with several other sessions through different Media Desks in Europe.
The seminar’s objective is to create a basic and structured knowledge on film marketing, and especially a conscience of the importance of the producer’s implication in
the marketing activities. Through a very simple structure producers learn how to develop a marketing plan for their films based on
the knowledge about their core audience. They will discover the “4
Ps” as main chapters of their strategic thinking: Product, Promotion, Place and Price will be then declined in terms of “business to
business tools” (b2b) and “business to consumer tools” (b2c). The
structure of the conference and PowerPoint presentation is conceived to provide the participants a hands-on guide that they may
use at any stage of their film process. Each concept will be illustrated by didactic specific examples of film marketing. A “toolbox”
where they can find useful information to apply each concept will
be provided after each chapter.
Presenter: Sarah Calderón
Sarah Calderón has an extensive background in marketing: she
has a major in advertising at the PUJ of Bogotá and a Master degree in Multicultural Communication at the CELSA
Sorbonne IV in Paris. She has more than ten years of
work experience in the audiovisual sector in different positions such as: Head of development at Patofeofilms—
Bogotá, Manager and Promoter of her own Film Festival:
Toma5inco—Bogotá, Head of International Sales at Coproduction Office—Paris, and as distributor coordinator at
Karma Films—Spain. Sarah recently launched her own marketing company for film: The Film Agency and in parallel works as
a marketing tutor and consultant for EAVE, the Media Programme
and several Media Desks. The Film Agency has been launched in
January 2012 and already counts on a very interesting first slate
of top-notch international films clients such as Avalon Distribution
(Spain), Backup Films (France), Entre Chien et Loup (Belgium),
Juliette Films (France), Neueroad Movies—Wim Wenders (Germany), Petit Film (France) and Zadig Productions (France).
Searching for the Spotlight: Festival Publicity
Tuesday, November 27, 11:30-12:30
As a director or producer you have worked on your film for years,
from the first spark of inspiration in the screenwriting process
to the arduous process of financing and beyond. You are in the
post-production lab finishing the colour grading and tweaking
sound effects. As the end credits fade during the final test screening, you lean back in both relief and excitement that your film is
finally finished. Right?
Actually, your film is about to start its public life and just
bringing it from that dark screening room into the spotlight
of a festival premiere involves much preparation. If they
are available, well-connected specialists in marketing
and publicity can help you reach that goal. Ideally you
build a team to support your film, for example your national film organization, a world sales agent and a publicist.
But regardless the size and genre of your film, whether
a low budget documentary or an international coproduction,
you should already be thinking about its promotion even before the
first day of shooting. Getting attention for your film from festival
programmers, press and buyers is very hard for any film. The best
way to get an advantage is to start as early as possible—months
in advance.
Especially films with a limited budget can reap the benefits of
advance planning. If your production is not flush with funding, you
can still afford to carve out time. It will give you an advantage over
bigger budget films, some even with international sales agents al-
ready on board, which have not been as smart as you about starting early.
Knowing who to approach at the right time is essential—and
how you can gather a team of supporters (national film organization, sales agent, publicist, festival programmers) that will help get
your film the spotlight it deserves.
Presenter: Thessa Mooij, Silversalt PR
Silversalt PR is a multi-lingual (German, Italian, Spanish, Russian) flexible communications firm based in New York.
We offer a full range of publicity and consulting services
for the international film industry, representing films
in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Sundance, Tribeca,
Rotterdam and other festivals. We have worked with
renowned filmmaking talent such as Spike Lee, Nanni
Moretti, Rutger Hauer, Claudia Llosa and Lech Majewski.
Silversalt PR is proud to handle the international publicity
for the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
and the Finnish Film Affair (Helsinki International Film Festival).
Owner Thessa Mooij looks forward to share her experiences with
filmmakers and producers at the Baltic Event.
77
Baltic Event and B’EST
partners and supporters
M U N D U S

November 25-28, 2012

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