BULGARIA
CRAYFISH
2009 – 35mm – color - 108’
Direction: Ivan Cherkelov
Screenplay: Ivan Cherkelov
Cinematography: Rali Ralchev
Editing: Zoritsa Kotseva
Sound: Alexander Bachvarov
Set design: Vanina Geleva
Cast: Filip Avramov, Valeri Yordanov, Slava Doycheva, Rangel Vulchanov, Nikolai Urumov, Evgenia Barakova
Producer: Rossitsa Valkanova
Production: Klas Film (in coproduction with The Chuchkov Brothers), 156, Kniaz Boris I Str., 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria, Tel: +359 2 981 5343, Fax: +359 2 981 5344, klasfilm@spnet.net
SYNOPSIS
Unemployed friends Doka and Bonza haven't managed to gain a foothold in the new economic climate. They liven up their inactivity with infantile distractions. Big shots from the former regime have meanwhile built up new careers, having caught the crest of the privatisation wave. Adopting the appropriate cynicism and employing mafia tactics, they line their pockets and reinforce their position. Matanov and Tsochev are contenders as intermediaries in the sale of an ironworks in Sinistra, which a Greek client has his eye on. Both want to get as much as possible out of this transaction, even at the cost of doing away with the competition. The rivals assign trustworthy consultants to engineer the venture, who then appoint compromised flunkies to get the job done. In a wholly random selection, the role of anonymous pawns is entrusted to Doka and Bonza. With a lucrative reward in their sights, they set off for Sinistra, unaware of what they are getting themselves into...
THE DIRECTOR: IVAN CHERKELOV
Ivan Cherkelov (b. 1957, Sofia) studied film direction at VITIZ (1982). He captured the problematic issues of the transformation process in Bulgaria with formal ingenuity in the films Pieces of love (1989), Thundering stones (1995) and Glass marbles (1999), whose screenplays he also wrote. The collection of film stories Christmas tree upside down (2006), which he co-directed with Vasil Zhivkov, won the Special Jury Prize ex aequo together with the Czech film Beauty in trouble (Kráska v nesnázích) at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2006. His film Crayfish was shot in 2009.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“... It’s risky to say that Crayfish is a film about love, or about loneliness, or about the mob that surrounds us, or about the unbearable awe of existence, or about the absurd... Each of these statements could be true... I don’t think that cinema or any form of art should simplify things. And I like polyphonic works, which talk about everything. And I try to do such films.”
(Interview KULTURA from 26.02.2010)
FILMOGRAFIA
1982 A ballade (Balada)
1989 Pieces of love (Parcheta lyubov)
1995 Thundering stones (Tarkalyashti se kameni)
1999 Glass marbles (Stakleni topcheta)
2006 Christmas tree upside down (Obarnata elha)
2009 Crayfish (Raci)
AWARDS AND FESTIVALS
2009 Moscow International Film Festival
2009 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
2009 Thessaloniki Film Festival
