Original Title: Pismo do Amerika
Synopsis
´Can a long-lost song save a friend from death in a New York hospital?´
Kamen an aspiring theatre director emigrates from Bulgaria to America to work in New York. His best friend Ivan a frustrated, but aspiring writer, stays behind in Sofia with his girl-friend Nina. One night, Ivan learns that his best friend has suffered a possibly fatal car accident in New York and is in hospital in a coma. Denied an America visa to be by his friend, Ivan hitch-hikes across Bulgaria armed with a video camera to the village where Kamen was born in search of his friend´s grandmother. He remembers that she used to sing a song `About life that passes as a Shadow`, a song that can resurrect the dead according to Bulgarian folklore. A song that may save his friend´s life. Ivan´s odyssey explores friendship, sanity, myth, faith, inspiration, death, life and hope.
Technical Information
2000; Bulgaria, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary; Drama, Road-movie; 105 minutes; 35mm; 1:1.66; Dolby SR; Original Language: Bulgarian; Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
DIRECTOR
Iglika Triffonova
WRITER
Iglika Triffonova
D.O.P.
Rali Ralchev
EDITOR
Yodanka Bachvarova, Floor Smal
MUSIC
Milcho Leviev
PRODUCTION COMPANY
KLAS Film, Phanta Vision, National Film Centre, EURIMAGES, ZDF/arte, Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation
CO-PRODUCER
Boyana Film, Bulgarian National TV
PRODUCER
Rossitsa Valkanova, Petra Goedings, Laszlo Kantor
SOUND
Robert Juhasz
Ivan
Philip Avramov
Nina
Ana Papadopulu
Kamen
Peter Antonov
The Counsellor
And Barret
Seidgy
Yoshihiro Terazono
Mitko
Dimitar Krivokapov
Doda Petra
Svetlana Yancheva
GLIKA TRIFFONOVA
IGLIKA TRIFFONOVA studied film & TV at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art in Sofia. Her career began with a series of documentaries, the first being YEAR OF 1990 (45 min), documenting the year after the fall of the Berlin wall. The film was selected by numerous festivals (Marseilles, Oberhausen, Potsdam) and won First prize at “Prix Futura”, Berlin, 1991. Among her other works of this time are POSSIBLE DISTANCES (1992), about the distances separating a Bulgarian man and a Turkish woman – called by the critics a “documentary love story” – and MURDER STORIES (1993), being the confessions of three men who have committed murder – the film was at Marseilles and Mannheim and was awarded The Golden Rose for best Bulgarian Documentary in 1994. The film played an important role in forming the public opinion during the debate against the death penalty held in Bulgarian in the early 90s and had a strong influence on the themes contained in THE INVESTIGATION.
Her first feature was LETTER TO AMERICA (2000), and was awarded 9 national prizes, including the Bulgarian nomination for the 2001 Oscar awards for best foreign film and was selected by over 45 international festivals.
THE INVESTIGATION (2006) is her 2nd feature. It has been awarded 11 national prizes and 7 international awards so far.
Iglika lives in Sofia with her husband, the actor Hristo Gurbov, who plays the husband in THE INVESTIGATION.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2006 The Investigation
2001 Letter to Amerika
Feature Documentary
1995 Po patya
1994 Portret na edna aktrisa
1992 Vazmozhni razstoyaniya
1990 Leto gospodne 1990
Short
1993 Razkazi za ubiystva
2014
Oct 07 – Nov 20
FESTIVAL INTL. DE CINE DE DONOSTIA
Sep 19 – 27
2010
MOLODIST KYIV INT. FILM FESTIVAL
Oct 23 – 31
Oct 16 – 22
2002
ISTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL
Special Prize of the Jury
Aug 21
2000
BULGARIAN NATIONAL FF
Audience Prize, Faculty of Journalism Prize, Best Film (student prize)
Mar 09
BULGARIAN NATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Special Prize of the Jury
Mar 09
NATIONAL BULGARIAN FILM FESTIVAL
Best Music, Best Young Actress, Critics’ prize
Mar 09
coming soon…
