East of the West - Competition 2009 / Raci / Bulgaria 2009
Friends Doka and Bonza are unemployed; Matanov and Tsonchev are competitors in the world of privatisation, each has a dark past and an equally dark present. They’ll stop at nothing to increase their coffers, even if this means resorting to mafia tactics. Without realising what they’ve got themselves into, Doka and Bonza agree to become involved in a seemingly innocent, well-paid assignment.
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 Tsonchev 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 confrontation of the protagonists’ incompatible worlds is presented as archetypal, while the analysis of their interaction is founded on an objective description of the environment and conditions which today breed commonplace crimes.
108 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Ivan Cherkelov
/ Screenplay Ivan Čerkelov / Ivan Cherkelov
/ Dir. of Photography Rali Ralčev / Rali Ralchev
/ Editor Zoritsa Kotseva
/ Producer Rossitsa Valkanova
/ Production Klas Film
/ Cast Filip Avramov / Philip Avramov, Valeri Jordanov / Valeri Yordanov, Rangel Valčanov / Rangel Valchanov
/ Contact Klas Film
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 (Parcheta lyubov, 1982), Rolling Stones (Tarkalyashti se kameni, 1995) and Glass Marbles (Stakleni topcheta, 1999), whose screenplays he also wrote. The collection of film stories Christmas Tree Upside Down (Obarnata elha, 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.
Klas Film
156, Kniaz Boris I Str., 1000, Sofia
Bulgaria
E-mail: [email protected]
Rossitsa Valkanova
Producer
Ivan Cherkelov
Film Director
Gergana Dakovska
Film Institution Rep.
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