Shot in October and November 2009 in the Sofia National Art Academy, the Danube ports of Vidin and Ruse and some train stations throughout the country Ave tells a hitchhiking love story between two young Bulgarians: Ave, an impulsive liar creating false identities for herself, and Kamen, an alienated art student hurrying to his best friend's funeral.
Ave was the first Bulgarian film to be selected in the 2011 Cannes Critics' Week feature film competition. At the 17th Sarajevo IFF (www.sff.ba) it won the Special Jury Prize and the Cineuropa prize. Most recently it grabbed the Filmfest Hamburg(http://www.filmfest-hamburg.de) Young Talent Award "Die Elfe". International sales agent Le Pacte (www.le-pacte.com) has sold the film to Switzerland, UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
"One night, a few years earlier, I found a sixteen-year-old runaway girl on my doorsteps. I invited her in, and she accepted, but only after making me promise that I would never ask her why she was there. I instantly fell in love with her, and the brief period of time that I knew her profoundly affected my life," Bojanov said, speaking of his inspiration for the film.
Bojanov, who graduated from the Sofia National School of Fine Arts and received an M.A. from the London Royal College of Art, likes to call himself a nomad. Having lived in many different places including New York where he studied documentary filmmaking, he is a passionate advocate of simplicity in film. "Anjela Nedialkova is not a professional actress, and so what? Before her I saw 700 girls, and no one was like her."
Bojanov's next project will be a remake of Bay Okan's film The Bus(1996), which he will shoot in Paris. He already cast Ovaness Torossian, who plays Kamen in Ave, in it.
Production credits
Script: Konstantin Bojanov, Arnold Barkus
Director: Konstantin Bojanov
DoP: Nenad Boroevich, Radoslav Gochev
Music: Tom Paul
Cast: Anjela Nedyalkova, Ovanes Torosyan, Martin Brambach, Iossif Sarchadjiev, Bruno S., Svetlana Yancheva, Nikolay Urumov, Elena Rainova, Krasimir Dokov
Production:
Elements - Metodius Petrikov
Camera - Dimitar Gochev
KB Films, Geoffroy Grison
Le Pacte
Camille Neel - Head of International Sales
5 Rue Darcet
Paris 75017
France
e-mail: c.neel@le-pacte.com>
Tel: + 33 1 44 69 02 70
www.le-pacte.com
