08/07/2015 - KARLOVY VARY 2015: The top honour for the most promising project has gone to Sofia Exarchou

Park by Sofia Exarchou

Park [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sofia Exarchou
film profile], the debut feature written and directed by Sofia Exarchou, has won the Work in Progress Award for Most Promising Project at Karlovy Vary, receiving €10,000 in services from the event’s partner, Barrandov Studios; the title was chosen from among the 15 selected projects (out of a total of 57 submissions). Produced by Amanda Livanou for Guanaco Films (Boy Eating the Bird’s Food [+see also:
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film profile]), which is currently also producing the sophomore feature by Babis Makridis (the director of the absurdist comedy L [+see also:
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interview: Babis Makridis
film profile]), the social drama Park already has several international development awards under its belt.

“Set in the ruins of past glory, this film takes us to the bottom of society and ignites a firework of raw energy. A portrayal of a young generation that has been betrayed and deprived of its future,” remarked the jury as it justified its decision. The official synopsis of the film is as follows: “Ten years have passed, and the Olympic Village in Athens, Greece, is in decay. Among the abandoned athletic facilities and new-money tourist resorts nearby, Dimitris (17), Anna (24), a retired athlete and their friends traverse Greece’s “glorious” past with the decadence of today, creating a portrait of a society unprepared for the brutal fall.” The film is scheduled for release next year and is currently looking for a sales agent and a Polish partner for assistance with post-production funding. 

This year, the Work in Progress selection included the Slovakian fiction feature debut Eva Nová by documentarian Marko Škop, slated for release in November 2015 and following the titular protagonist, once a famous actress and now a recovering alcoholic trying to rebuild the ties with her estranged son; the Czech sci-fi comedy Mars [+see also:
trailer
interview: Benjamin Tuček
film profile] by Benjamin Tuček, about sending trained yet inexperienced astronauts from Eastern Europe into space because of economic pragmatism; the feature debut by Polish shorts director Kuba Czekaj, The Erlprince, which centres on a 14-year-old boy working on the theory of parallel worlds and getting ready to study at university, while bonding with his authoritative mother and his father, who has just reappeared after a prolonged absence; and the first feature by Turkish director, editor and cinematographer Senem Tüzen, Motherland, billed as a “subversive and uncompromising portrait of a woman torn apart by both love and hatred for her mother, and struggling to reconcile within herself the same cultural schisms that divide modern Turkey”, among other projects.