12-12-2016

PRODUCTION: Stephan Komandarev’s Directions Wraps Shooting

By
    Director Stephan Komandarev Director Stephan Komandarev

    SOFIA: Acclaimed director, scriptwriter and producer Stephan Komandarev completed the shooting of his low budget feature film Directions aka Compatibility on 5 December 2016. The film is a Bulgarian /German/ Macedonian coproduction, whose financing took less than a year.

    Based on real events, the script written by Simeon Ventsislavov and Stephan Komandarev interweaves six contemporary taxi drivers’ stories and a free interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s short story Grief. “I changed the title during the shooting, because I found out that Directions reflects better the heart, the soul and the true dynamics of the film”, Komandarev told FNE.  

    Vasil Vasilev-Zueka, Irini Jambunas, Assen Blatechki, Vasil Banov, Gerasim Georgiev-Gero and Dobrin Dosev play the six main characters. Popular Ivan Barnev, Georgi Kadurin, Hristo Mutafchiev, Julian Vergov, Nikolai Urumov, Stefan Denolyubov, Sofia Bobcheva and Stefka Yanorova are co-starring. Vesselin Hristov is the DoP.

    Preproduction started in March 2016, with scout locations and a test shooting of the whole film with a small digital camera. The real shooting in nocturnal Sofia took place in November-December 2016 and lasted 24 days. There are roughly six one-frame episodes, some of which go uninterrupted for nearly twenty minutes. “DoP Vesselin Hristov proposed to me the one shot method. I am very pleased, because now the film looks realistic with totally free actors. A key person for us was crime psychologist Todor Todorov, one of Bulgaria’s best experts in solving suicide issues”, Komandarev added.

    Komandarev is producing through Argo Film in cooperation with Stelios Ziannis through Aktis Film Production and Vladimir Anastasov through Sector Film. Bulgarian National Film Center, Bulgarian National Television, the German Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM), the Macedonian Film Agency and Eurimages are supporting.

    The film will be released in 2017.

    Production Information:

    Argo Film
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    www.argofilm.eu

    Sektor Film (Macedonia)
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    www.sektor.com.mk

    Credits:

    Director: Stefan Komandarev
    Scriptwriters: Simeon Ventsislavov, Stefan Komandarev,
    DoP: Vesselin Hristov
    Production designer: Maria Koicheva
    Sound: Ivan Andreev
    Editor: Nina Altaparmakova
    Cast: Vasil Vasilev-Zueka, Irini Jambunas, Assen Blatechki, Vasil Banov, Gerasim Georgiev-Gero, Dobrin Dosev, Ivan Barnev, Georgi Kadurin, Hristo Mutafchiev, Julian Vergov, Sofia Bobcheva, Nikolai Urumov, Troyan Gogov, Stefka Yanorova, Stefan Denolyubov, Dimitar Banenkin, Borislava Stratieva, Anna Komandareva