In Cannes, 2016, the Artistic Board members, comprising Sandy Lieberson, Simon Perry, Manfred Schmidt, Antonio Saura, Dariusz Jablonski and ScripTeast’s joint Heads of Studies: Tom Abrams and Christian Routh, decided that the Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for the Best East European Script should go to When the Trees Fall. In their citation, the board announced: “The Award goes to a script that is unusually rich in cinematic potential. It presents an intoxicating array of characters and narratives, woven together to create an extraordinary world that is at once terrifying, magical, sensual and hilarious, but never less than authentic. The writer’s imagination sparkles on the page, and we are all excited to see how this vision can be realized for the screen”
The film is produced by Directory Films (Ukraine), in co-production with Message Film (Poland), Focus In (Macedonia), Solar Media Entertainment (Ukraine), with the support of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, the Polish Film Institute and the Macedonian Film Fund. Latido Films (Spain) is handling international distribution.
Ága (previously titled Nanook) is the second feature by Milko Lazarov, from Bulgaria. The script was written by Milko Lazarov and Simeon Ventsislavov, and developed within the 9th edition of ScripTeast. The screenwriters were supported by David Aukin and Jens Dahl as Creative Advisers, and Tom Abrams as Head of Studies. The project received the Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award for the Best East European Script at Cannes in 2015.
ScripTeast’s Artistic Board felt that this is a script where the cinematic qualities immediately become apparent, as the images jump off the page throughout, creating powerful visual sequences. Set in an austere and exotic landscape, the narrative examines themes about the clash between the old and the new, and family dynamics, in a culture that is facing extinction as the modern world encroaches on it.
The film is a Bulgaria/ Germany/ France co-production. It is produced by Red Carpet – Veselka Kiryakova, and coproduced by 42film, Arizona Productions, BNT, ZDF/ARTE, with financial support from the Bulgarian National Film Center, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and the Institut Français.
ScripTeast was created by Polish director and producer Dariusz Jablonski, in collaboration with his closest associates, producers: Violetta Kaminska and Izabela Wojcik. Besides their wide international production activities through their companies Apple Film and Message Film, they jointly created the Independent Film Foundation, which promotes the creators of challenging new films in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.
ScripTeast is organized by the Independent Film Foundation co-funded by Creative Europe - MEDIA Sub-Programme of the EU, the Polish Film Institute, and Apple Film Production, in co-operation with the European Film Academy, the Producers Network, the European Producers Club, ACE – Atelier du Cinema Européen, and Film New Europe.
More info: www.scripteast.pl.
