>>>TILT (Bulgaria)
1988, Sofia, Communist Bulgaria. Stash is a bright, 18-year-old boy, just out of school, whose life revolves around his hunger for adventure.
A spectacular skateboarding incident gives Stash a chance to meet a beautiful girl – Becky. They fall in love with each other, but her father, an ambitious totalitarian era police officer, does not like the free-spirited boy. Stash and his gang of friends – resourceful Angel, opportunist Gum and high flying Gogo – demonstrate a sort of youthful recklessness which annoys the policeman. Stash and Becky persist with their affair in spite of the often brutal attempts by Katev, Becky’s father, to separate them.
In the meantime, the Iron Curtain falls. New horizons open to the youngsters, new opportunities and a chance for the two lovers to escape from the grip of Katev’s control. They decide to flee to Germany and two of their friends – Angel and Gogo – join them, swept by the nation-wide urge to immigrate. Germany had long been the average Bulgarian’s dreamland and so they set out on this adventure together. Only Gum does not join the group because he wants to study for an engineer. The gang of young people is apprehended at the state border by Becky’s father. Becky is taken back home. Stash wants to stay with her but Katev threatens to plant a heroin package inside his luggage. And so Stash’s choice is jail or freedom. He has no other option but to join his friends and leave the country.
Upon leaving, he accidentally helps Snake, a small time smuggler to escape from the police. Stash, Angel and Gogo reach an immigration camp in a small German town where they surrender their passports. They believe that getting their German passport would be a piece of cake but they are confronted with the prospect of at least several years of waiting and working in community services. They think they will find an easy way out by going to a big city where there is lots of opportunities. Stash dreams of saving enough money to send an airplane ticket to Becky, while Angel dreams of opening a bar. Gogo wants to win a big skateboarding competition but instead ends up with a broken leg. This brings to his decision to return to Bulgaria. Stash and Angel descend into petty crime. All of a sudden Stash learns that back in Bulgaria Becky is involved with another man. He realizes that there is no other way but to return to Bulgaria and claim her back. Angel decides to join him. They perform one last sting for a lot of cash but on their way through former Yugoslavia they are beaten and robbed by highway bandits. They return home broke but happy to reunite with their childhood friends – Gogo is still the artistic graffiti writer and Gum has become one of the craftiest car lifters in the city.
Stash soon succeeds in claiming Becky back from a gangster who turns out to be her father’s favourite. Snake, his old acquaintance is a big mafia boss now. He helps Stash get rid of the gangster and Katev, who once the keeper of the Communist morality now serves the new morality of the day – money. Snake employs Stash as a drug dealer. This way he can start paying back the stolen money since the robbed bandit from Germany have found him and want money or revenge. Snake’s influence provides protection for the reunited couple and a job for Stash in the drug dealing business. But drug dealing takes its toll on Stash and he is soon out of touch with reality. Becky is pregnant but Stash is completely unaware of that. He fails to notice the signs of frustration in her behaviour. In the meantime, she finds out that her father has been hiding letters from her mother. She is furious and her father is helpless to find an excuse for his lies. Becky’s former boyfriend, the gangster, steps in to take matters in his own hands. He strikes a deal with the bandits from Germany that they would kill Snake, thus making way for his promotion, and he will give them Stash in return. Becky decides to have an abortion. That same day Snake is killed and Stash is arrested by Katev who has decided he did not want him killed. The gangster, Stamen, comes to the police station demanding the release of Stash, but Katev refuses. Bandits put the police station under a siege waiting for Katev to surrender Stash. Yet inside the building they are safe. But suddenly Stash finds a letter from Becky in his pocket. This letter tells about her plans to have an abortion. Katev and Stash decide to prevent this abortion and have no choice but to come out of the police station. In the ensuing clash with the bandits Stamen is killed and they manage to get to the hospital. The abortion is stopped at the last moment. But Stash still has to go to jail for drug dealing.
Katev goes back to the police station to get rid of the evidence and the others wait for him in their bar “Tilt”. When Katev comes to the bar to let Stash know that he is a free man, now the bandits from Germany appear and shoot down Katev and Stash.
In a final episode, six months later, we see Becky having birth contractions and Gum driving her to the hospital. She gives birth to a child and the only visitors to the hospital are Angel and Gum.
Borislav Viktorov Chouchkov
Born: 5th June 1975
Owner and CEO of "SIF 309" Co. Ltd. and "Chouchkov Brothers" Ltd.
Apart from several short, documentary and feature films writer and producer, for the pat two years he has been producing a tv show for stand-up comedians
Laughter In the Hall broadcasted every Friday in the prime-time of bTV, winner of the Award for Best TV Show at Golden Umbrella 2006 - XII International Media Events. His television productions include a 2004
This Is Me, a concert-performance) and two opera shows: 1998
Maria Tudor and 1997
Fosca, both realized in collaboration with The National Opera House of Sofia and Sao Paulo "Imagem Data", and included in the Official Selection of the Television Festival "The Golden Antenna" – Albena 1998. He also produced several music videos. As a Manager of SIF 309 for the Music Productions he was responsible for the realization of over 450 music productions mainly in the field of original music scores for films.
Education
| 2003 |
Media Business School, Ronda, Spain (Master degree in European Audio-Visual Management)
Eurimage – internship |
| 1994-99 |
National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts "Krastio Sarafov" in the class of Prof. Stefan Danailov (Drama Theatre Acting BA) |
| 1990 |
National Music School "Liubomir Pipkov" (secondary education) |
Filmography:
| 2006 |
ATM (short) – writer, producer
34 (short) –producer
Second Floor (short) -writer, producer |
| 2005 |
D-2 & Deo (documentary) - producer |
| 2002 |
Fino a farti male (feature) – executive producer for Bulgaria (directed by Alessandro Colizzi; produced by Film Daedalus – Italy)
Los Novios Bulgaros (feature) - executive producer for Bulgaria (directed by Eloy de la Iglesia; produced by Cartel Producciones Audiovisuales – Spain; included during the Berlinale '03 panorama)
|
| 1999 |
Kostadin, the Little Kaval Player (documentary) – executive producer |
| 1993 |
The Sixth (short) - scriptwriter |
Dimitar Konstantinov Kotzev
Born: 3rd January 1971
For the past three years he has been directing the television show
The Other Bulgaria (on bTV). His previous work on television include
Canaletto and
Neon on Bulgarian National Television. Since 2002 he has been the Artistic Director of the music television MM TV, also writing and directing 4 consecutive editions of Annual Music Awards of MM TV. He worked as a free-lance director and advertisement consultant. In 1993 he was the editor of "Ah, Maria" Magazine, and during 1998-1999 the founder and editor-in-chief of "Kamikaze Gazet", a cultural magazine. In 1990-1996 he published his works in literature newspapers and magazines such as "Literature Newspaper", "Oh, Marry", "Pulse", etc. In 2004 his novel
Lora from morning till evening was released, he is currently working on a script for a feature film based on that novel.
During the years 1990-1996 he worked as a free-lance translator. He translated
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins,
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles,
Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote. In 1996 he received the Award of the Union of Translators for Best Translation from the English Language and the Award of the Foundation "Open Society" for Best Young Translator.
Education
| 1998 |
National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts "Krastio Sarafov" in the class of Prof. Vladislav Ikonomov (Master Degree in Cinema and TV Directing) |
| 1996 |
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" (Master's degree in English philology) |
Filmography:
| 2006 |
ATM (short) – scriptwriter |
| 1999 |
Reflection (short) - co-scriptwriter and co-director (The film wins First Award for Debut at the national Festival of the Cinema in Varna, 1995, and is invited to participate in the competitive program of several international film festivals, such as Montecatini, Tampere, etc.) |
