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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Bulgaria

Victor Bojinov in post-production with his second feature, Chamla

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- The contemporary drama follows a young drug addict facing a tough decision

Victor Bojinov in post-production with his second feature, Chamla
Snejana Makaveeva, Benoît Maréchal and Victor Bojinov on the set of Chamla

Following his period drama Heights/The Liberators [+see also:
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, Bulgarian director Victor Bojinov returns to the present day in his sophomore feature, Chamla (working title). Set in the middle of the mountains, the film follows Danny, a young drug addict. The project is being produced by Galina Toneva and Kiril Kirilov through Gala Film, and co-produced by Bulgarian outfits Magic Shop, Maxim 15, Concept Studio and Leon Audio Studio.

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The screenplay, penned by Delyana Maneva, one of the writers behind the superhit Mission: London [+see also:
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(2010), starts by exploring the serene lifestyle of a group of young people of various nationalities living in a commune in the village of Chamla in the Rhodope Mountains. One day, a teenager, Danny (Alexander Kenderov), shows up in the village, and the group adopts him. Soon after, a man comes to Chamla claiming that Danny has escaped from a nearby rehabilitation centre for underage drug addicts… What Danny does next will set in motion a conflict between the commune and the centre.

The budget amounts to a little over €700,000, with approximately €500,000 (both for development and production) coming from the Bulgarian National Film Center. The project also received support from the European Union’s MEDIA programme. The shoot took place over 28 days in the Rhodope Mountains and the Bulgarian capital of Sofia in September and October 2020, and post-production is expected to wrap this September. The DoP is Anton Bakarski. Other significant characters are played by Diana Dimitrova, Hristo Petkov, Snejana Makaveeva, Benoît Maréchal and Ivan Savov.

Producer Galina Toneva tells Cineuropa that the production was supposed to start earlier in 2020, but it had to be postponed because of the lockdown, although everything was ready. She says that the remote locations where the shoot took place were reached by travelling for hours every day with off-road vehicles, which was difficult but proved very appropriate during the pandemic. She also says that approximately 0.5% of the budget was spent on adhering to the COVID-19 health regulations.

For Bojinov, making the transition from a period drama about Bulgaria’s fight for liberation from the Ottoman Empire to a contemporary story was “natural”. “For me, what is most important in a movie’s story is what it is about, not the setting or the way characters are dressed. There are quite a lot of common elements, of course. In both films, the characters are young and in search of their identity. Chamla is a story about how Danny, the protagonist, grows up emotionally; he is on the edge of some of the most important choices in his life,” says the director. “Standing up for your principles even when it is almost impossible, and even under the threat of total destruction, is the main subject of Chamla.”

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