FNE at Varna Golden Rose FF National Competition: NO.1

By Pavlina Jeleva

Bulgaria's first "hip-hop film" (as the local media named it), Atanas Hristoskov's feature film debut NO.1, premiered at the 2011 Sofia film fest (www.siff.bg). The low budget film was produced by Incoms Project with the participation of Bulgarian National Television (www.bnt.bg) and financial support from the Bulgarian National Film Center (www.bnt.bg).

{mosimage}Written by Yavor Mihaylov and Hristoskov, the 75 minutes HD film shows the sharp conflict between two schools located in the same building, which turns into a real war. The elite school and the normal one have different social status. The parents of the children in the first school are ambitious and rich and those in the second are desperate and poor. In the middle of the battlefield stands the literature teacher, who tries to calm the growing tensions with peaceful means. According to director Hristoskov "frustration and aggression nowadays are driven mainly by two things: misunderstanding between teacher and students and misunderstanding between students and parents. During the totalitarian era teachers put pressure on students; now it is the opposite."

The role of the teacher is performed by the popular actor Philip Avramov (Letter to America, Tilt). Nearly all the other performers were cast directly on the street or in the school yard. Hristoskov describes the soundtrack as "socially engaged and provocative." He declares he wanted to make a typical film about young people with a lot of graffiti and hip hop.

{mosimage}"While we were shooting two guys were beaten up literally half an hour before they had to go to the set. There were other similar incidents the same day. We felt that what was going on around us was actually a film. And that somehow strengthened my belief in the sense of what I was doing."

The audience will see NO.1 in theatres and on the TV screen this autumn.

Production credits

Script: Yavor Mihaylov, Atanas Hristoskov
Director: Atanas Hristoskov
DoP: Stefan Kutsarov
Music: Boris Changurov
Cast: Philip Avramov, Ivaylo Zahariev

Incoms Project, BNT

Plamen Yordanov

tel. +359 2 865 83 60

