11-10-2009

ScripTeast workshop wraps

By Katarzyna Grynienko
    ScripTeast (www.scripteast.pl), the Independent Film Foundation training program in scriptwriting which concluded in the Ossoliński Palace in Sterdyń on October 2, presented the following five films in the early stages of development:

    {mosimage} {mosimage} Breaking News (Romania), script by Ana Agopian and Iulia Rugina. While covering a factory explosion Alex, a reporter, convinces his cameraman to go in the building for better footage. When the factory collapses and the cameraman dies, Alex's guilt causes him to reevaluate his life. He makes a memorial film about his co-worker, which leads him on a journey of self-discovery. The authors have been internationally awarded for their short films including Hi Cristina! Bye Cristina and Friday Around Eleven. Breaking News does not yet have a producer attached.

    {mosimage} Coltan (Poland), script by Maciek Wszelaki. A psychological drama with thriller elements about a Russian advertising executive who leaves his job and relationships and sets out to find the son that he left 30 years ago. His son is involved in the illegal gun market in Africa, but mystery and danger surround his activities. Wszelaki's shorts were screened at over 40 international film festivals. His documentary Original Schtick, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, received four AFI nominations (Australian Oscars) winning the Best Director award. His TV Drama Sparky D won Best Short Prize at Sydney Film Festival. Coltan is his first feature film screenplay and would be his feature film debut. The film does not yet have a producer attached.

    {mosimage} Polystyrene (Slovakia), script by Zuzana Belková. The story takes place in a city which has a new, colorful surface thanks to the polystyrene panels produced by Igor's company. He is a father of 13-year-old Gabo and 11-year-old Martina. Inspired by his father's anti-Gypsies attitude, the overweight some becomes a skinhead with a swastika tattooed on his belly. Meanwhile Martina starts a friendship with a Gypsy orphan boy who fantasizes that his mother is Jennifer Lopez. Igor's wife, a doctor who covers her disappointment in life with obsessive cleaning, starts an affair with a cabdriver. Igor finds his colorful surfaces city can't hide the problems of his own family. Belková is the winner of Tibor Vichta, the biggest scriptwriting contest in Slovakia. She is in discussions with a director and seeking a producer.

    {mosimage} All of This Belongs To Me (Czech Republic), script by Irena Hejdová. The script is an adaptation of a Czech novel about three generations of women living in Mongolia. The main character is a young woman who struggles against racial prejudice due to her half-Chinese origin and leaves the plains for the capitol of Mongolia in order to find her new happiness. Hejdová won the Sazka Award for her script Night Owls and RWE and Barrandov Studio Award for Upside Down. The film is seeking a co-producer.

    {mosimage} Riders (Latvia), script by Janis Vingris. A pair of post-punk bikers, with a history of drug-dealing and violent crime, have a deal with the police to entrap a Russian Mafia narcotics baron. Their violent confrontations are interwoven with a love story. As the main character dies, he realizes the true nature of his own existence: that he is no more than a dying man's final dream of redemption or retribution. Vingris is a renowned Latvian film and theater director, the creator and head of the studio Eho Filma. He is the co-producer of Honey Baby, a German-Finnish-Latvian co-production directed by Mika Kaurismäki, and the co-producer and star of the WWII drama Three to Dance (to be released in November 2009). Vingris plans to direct and is seeking an international producer.