22/09/2015 - The French international sales agent is selling the film by Bulgarian director Svetla Tsotsorkova, which is having its world premiere at San Sebastián today

Carrying on with its strategy centred on discovering new talents, Alpha Violet, the Paris-based sales agent managed by Virginie Devesa and Keiko Funato, is currently in action at the 63rd San Sebastián Film Festival with Thirst [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Svetla Tsotsorkova
film profile], the feature debut by Bulgarian director Svetla Tsotsorkova, which will have its world premiere today in the competitive New Directors section. 

Written by the director together with Svetoslav Ovcharov and Ventislav Vasilev, the story revolves around a couple and their teenage son, who eke out a living on a hilltop, doing the laundry for local hotels, despite the problems created by the intermittent water supply. Their simple life is turned upside down by the arrival of a father-and-daughter team who work in the field of divining and well digging, and who promise to bring an end to their precarious existence by finding a spring on the arid hill. But ultimately, these newcomers quench a thirst that is much stronger than that for mere water... Interestingly, Thirst, which was produced by Front Film, already has a very hectic festival schedule on the cards for the near future, as it has been selected for Zurich, Haifa, London and Hamburg.

Over the last few years, Alpha Violet has made a name for itself by discovering and selling the debut films by Ukrainian director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy (The Tribe [+see also:
trailer
film profile], winner of the Grand Prix in the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2014), Spaniard Antonio Méndez Esparza (Here and There [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Hernández
film profile], winner of the same trophy on the Croisette in 2012), Russian filmmaker Nataliya Kudryashova (Pioneer Heroes, unveiled this year in the Berlinale Panorama), Hungarian director Gábor Reisz (For Some Inexplicable Reason [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and French filmmaker Julia Kowalski (Raging Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile], revealed at Cannes in the ACID programme, and due to be screened at Busan in October).

Also featuring on the slate are Marie & the Misfits [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sébastien Betbeder (currently in post-production, starring Eric Cantona, Pierre Rochefort and Vimala Pons) and the film noir Luxembourg by Myroslav Slaboskpytskiy (in pre-production), which will be set in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, and which will feature a police officer who lurks among the shadows and a manhunt.

(Translated from French)