Three years ago director Pavel Vesnakov got the Jameson award at the short film contest with Sofia Film Fest for his movie, named Vlakove /Trains/. The reason pointed out back then was his ability to enter painful social issues, presenting those in a bright and memorable manner. A few days ago the Robert Bosch Stiftung foundation awarded the Film Prize for International Cooperation to director Pavel Vesnakov for best short fiction - Zeus’ Volkswagen, at the goEast film festival in Wiesbaden, Germany. The reason is the same – this country offers plenty of such stories and if one shows the sense and talent to develop one, the efforts will be appreciated for sure.

“Actually it is a true story, inspired by real events, as nearly 90 percent of what happens in the script is real. Of course, we touched it all a bit with the purpose of a better drama structure. We are talking about two Roma boys, brothers, who haven’t seen each other for a long time and have to meet after long years of separation due to the death of their father. However, they don’t have money and the organization of his funeral means great difficulties to them. The only way they can make money is to sell an old Volkswagen Golf.”

The project is named Zeus’ Volkswagen. It is a co-production of Bulgaria and Germany with a budget of EUR 70,000. The jury’s hearts have been conquered by “the richness of the story, interweaving subjects on life and death, redemption, forgiveness and sacrifice in a multicultural and ethnic society, in a really mature manner, combining drama with comedy in a story with high potential.” It is further pointed out that “a great team of Bulgarian and German moviemakers have worked on the movie – people with strong faith and artistic motivation”.

Director Vesnakov has been nominated twice for the Robert Bosch award. His movie reached the finals two years ago with the same team. Actually this has been the last award ceremony in East Europe and the Bosch foundation is to move to the Arab world. “It was a really strong competition, as all the films were very good, nobody new the winner till the last moment. In my opinion they all deserved the award. Another Bulgarian project marked a strong presence as well,” the director says. He is talking on Kevork Aslanjan’s Getting Fat in a Healthy Way, which won the Special Mention award at the festival for its innovation and humor, related to the father-son connection in a utopia world.

Mr. Vesnakov has received two big awards for less than one year. The first one was from Clermont-Ferrand, where the biggest specialized short movie festival takes place. His film Chest /Honor/, devoted to the clash between generations here was also nominated for the European movie awards, besides the Grand Prix.

“It was a really impressive experience, because my movie had 8 screenings within 8 days with over 1,000 spectators for each. I had never seen such interest in movies elsewhere. There were spectators from all ages – children, men and women, it was astonishing!”

We will also add that Honor has received two more awards – in Holland and France and it has been included in the agenda of 40 foreign film forums so far.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev