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EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009 European Discovery 1 EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009 European Discovery 2 EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009 European Discovery 3 KATALIN VARGA Festival Participation/Awards: Berlinale – Silver Bear / Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Sound Design) CPH:PIX Copenhagen IFF – New Talent Grand Prix Brussels IFF – Best Actress (Hilda Peter) IFF Cinematik Piešťany – Best Director, Best Film Peter Strickland Banished by her husband and her village after a fam- ily scandal, Katalin Varga finds herself left with no other choice but to set out for a quest to find the biological father of her son Orbán. Taking Orbán with her under false pre- tence, Katalin travels through the Carpathian Mountains. The journey takes her to a place she once prayed she would never have to set foot in again in her life. She re- opens a sinister chapter from her past and takes revenge. Peter Strickland Peter Strickland was born in 1973 in Reading, UK. Since 1992, he’s made sev- eral Super 8 and 16mm short films. His most well-known short BUBBLEGUM (USA, 1996) starred Andy Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn and became a staple of underground film circuits. After a long hiatus (producing many records in the guise of The Sonic Catering Band), he made his next short film A METAPHYSICAL EDUCATION with funding from The Celluloid Workshop in Hungary and The British Council. KATALIN VARGA is his debut feature film. Romania / UK / Hungary KATALIN VARGA Production: Libra Film 52, Popa Soare st., et. 1, ap. 4 023984 Bucharest ROMANIA tel. +40 213 266 480 fax +40 213 266 480 office@librafilm.net World Sales: Memento Films 6 Cité Paradis 75010 Paris FRANCE tel. + 33 153 349 020 fax +33 142 471 124 distribution@memento-films.com Press: Transilvania Film 52, Popoa Soare st., ground floor 023984 Bucharest ROMANIA tel. +40 213 266 480 fax +40 213 266 480 office@transilvaniafilm.ro WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Peter Strickland PRODUCED BY Tudor Giurgiu, Oana Giurgiu & Peter Strickland DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Márk Győri MAIN CAST Hilda Péter (Katalin Varga), Tibor Pálffy (Anatol Borlan), Norbert Tankó (Orbán Varga), Lászlo Mátray (Zsigmond Varga), Melinda Kántor (Etelka Borlan), Roberto Giacomello (Gergely), Sebastian Marina (Gergely’s brother-in-law) AJAMI Festival Participation/Awards: Camera d’Or Cannes IFF – Special Distinction Jerusalem IFF – Wolgin Award for best full-length Israeli feature Melbourne IFF Toronto IFF – Contemporary World Cinema Helsinki IFF – Official Selection Israeli Academy Awards – 5 Ophir Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Script, Best Editing and Best Music Hamptons FF London IFF AJAMI is going to represent Israel at the 82nd Academy Awards in the foreign language film category Yaron Shani Scandar Copti Jaffa’s Ajami neighbourhood is a melting pot of cultures and conflicting views among Jews, Muslims and Chris- tians. Back and forth in time, and through the eyes of various characters, we witness how impossible the sit- uation actually is... Sensitive 13-year-old Nasri and his older brother Omar live in fear when their entire family is in danger after their uncle foolishly wounds a promi- nent clan member. Naive young Palestinian refugee Malek works illegally in Israel to help finance the surgery that will save his mother’s life. Affluent Palestinian Binj dreams of a bright future with his Jewish girlfriend. Jew- ish policeman Dando and his family undergo a frustrating search for his missing younger brother, a soldier... Yaron Shani & Scandar Copti Yaron Shani is an Israeli Jew, born in 1973. He graduated at the Tel Aviv University Department of Film and Television. His thesis film DISPHORIA (40’, drama) won the Audience Award at the International Student Film Festival Sehsüchte and Special Jury Mention at Karlovy Vary. In 2002 he was the director of the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival. Scandar Copti is a Palestinian citizen of the Israeli state, born and raised in Jaffa. His mockumentary THE TRUTH (12’) was screened at the 2003 Artists Against Occupation in Montreal. Scandar has also written, directed and ed- ited several fiction, documentary and experimental short films. Germany / Israel AJAMI Production: INOSAN PRODUCTIONS ISRAEL tel. +97 236 204 535 [email protected] TWENTY TWENTY VISION GERMANY tel. +49 30 612 817 50 offi[email protected] World Sales: The Match Factory tel. +49 221 539 709-0 [email protected] Press: Richard Lormand WORLD CINEMA PUBLICITY tel. +33 9 704 498 65 or +1 337 214 4815 [email protected] WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY Scandar Copti & Yaron Shani PRODUCED BY Mosh Danon, Thanassis Karathanos & Talia Kleinhendler DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Boaz Yehonatan Yacov MAIN CAST Shahir Kabaha (Omar), Ibrahim Frege (Malek), Fouad Habash (Nasri), Youssef Sahwani (Abu Elias), Ranin Karim (Hadir), Eran Naim (Dando), Scandar Copti (Binj) GAGMA NAPIRI Festival Participation/Awards: Buster Copenhagen IFF for Children and Youth – Best Children’s Film Kinoshok-Open CIS and Baltic FF Anapa – Special Diploma of the Jury Golden Apricot Yerevan – Golden Apricot for Best Film, Ecumencial Jury Prize Paris Cinema – Jury Award “Metrobus” Cines del Sur Granada – Alhambra de Oro for Best Feature Length Film Seattle IFF – Grand Jury Prize Go East Wiesbaden – “Golden Lily”, Skoda-Award for Best Film, FIPRESCI prize FEST Belgrade IFF – Jury Special Mention George Ovashvili Torn away from his father at the beginning of the Geor- gian-Abkhazian war, slightly cross-eyed 12-year-old Tedo is tired of living the life of a refugee. He works very hard at a garage while his young mother, Keto, is employed as a clerk, but their incomes do not suffice to get by, so Keto begins to prostitute herself in order to help them to survive. This is too much for Tedo to bear, so disregarding all warnings he decides to look for his father in war-torn Abkhazia. Unable to speak the local language and wor- ried about his own safety, Tedo pretends to be deaf. His odyssey takes him across borders into physical and emo- tional landscapes where nationalism rules and the “eye for an eye” mentality dominates. The war-ravaged world he encounters reflects the complex state of affairs strug- gling inside the boy’s psyche. George Ovashvili George Ovashvili is a film director from Tbilisi, Georgia. He graduated at the Georgian State Institute of Cinema and Theatre (1996) and The New York Film Academy at Universal Studios in Hollywood (2006). He has directed a number of shorts, most notably ZGVIS DONIDAN (Eye Level) – for which he received the New York Film Academy Scholarship Award at the Berlinale 2005 and in the same year the Special Prize of the International Jury at Odense International Film Festival – and WAGONETTE. THE OTHER BANK is his big-screen directorial debut. Georgia / Kazakhstan GAGMA NAPIRI THE OTHER BANK Production: George Ovashvili Production 39 Gorgasali st. apt. 54 0114 Tbilisi GEORGIA tel. +995 995 302 82 thunder_fi[email protected] Production Company Kino 176 Al-Farabi st. 050023 Almaty KAZAKHSTAN tel. +7 701 714 018 3 [email protected] World Sales: INTERCINEMA Druzhinikovskaya st. 15 123242 Moscow RUSSIA tel.+7 499 255 90 52/53 [email protected] DIRECTED BY George Ovashvili WRITTEN BY Nugzar Shataidze PRODUCED BY George Ohashvili & Sain Gabdullin DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Shahahir Assadi MAIN CAST Tedo Bekhauri (Tedo), Sopho Gvritishvili (Keto), Galoba Gambaria (Tsupak), Nika Alajajev (Goshka), Tamara Meskhi (Miriam), Archil Tabukashvili (1st boy), Temo Goginava (2nd boy), Lia Abuladze (Zita), Berdia Intskirveli (Daur), Jano Izoria (Jangul)
