>>> Gramophone (Bulgaria)
One man’s stand for freedom becomes a family’s fight against oppression. The Rodopi Mountains, 1971 – Bulgaria.
Ali Ali is a noble man. Just out of prison and pained by the loss of his wealth to the communist regime he needs to rebel, to fight for his freedom, but that entails putting his family through danger.
Sparked by the village secretary Zahariev, Ali goes to town to buy a new radio for his rock-and-roll obsessed son Ahmet as well as to seek for a way to evade the assimilation policy which would force his family to adopt non-Muslim names.
Given only three days, Ali embarks on a dangerous journey through the army-patrolled mountains, while leaving his son struggling to fix his old and broken radio and his wife Yasmin to cover up for her ‘ill’ husband.
Inspired by a true story, RADIOGRAM celebrates the strength of the human spirit, family and friendship all in the heart of freedom. A poignant feel-good drama, which gives us an insight into a world that has never had a voice.
Rouzie Hassanova
Rouzie Hassanova is a Bulgarian born writer/director. She became interested in directing at High School and soon after she graduated, she moved to London in ‘98. Rouzie has been working in the film industry for almost a decade - from production, post production to film sales. Besides being a writer/director, she is also the Sales Manager for East Europe at Hanway Films, an international film sales agent. Selling films like Creation, Nowhere Boy and Harry Brown gives her a broad insight into the independent film finance, international market, distribution, marketing and most acutely the importance of having a great script.
To this date, Rouzie has completed three short films, 'Glashedy', her graduation project at London College of Printing (now called LCC) which was awarded with Distinction. Her short, The Portrait, was officially selected at six international film festivals and won an Accolade Award for Excellence in Film.
With Gramophone, Rouzie was recently nominated for the Robert Bosch Shiftung Prize and won Best Pitch at the Live! Ammo organized by Raindance and Women in Film and TV. She is also developing her next feature Nusha, which won her a free Screenwriting Course at the Met Film School and a development mentorship by the Script Factory, UK.
