Original Title: False Witness
Synopsis
The Hague, The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia:
Two ambitious lawyers face each other in the trial of Milorad Krstic, who’s accused of committing war crimes as a commander in the Bosnian war. The defender, Mikhail Finn, has managed to refute all the accusations against his client. Convinced of Krstic´s guilt, Catherine Lagrange, the prosecutor, summons a young man with incriminating evidence against Krstic. He claims to have been abandoned by his parents as a child and to have been one of Krstic’s soldiers. Defender Finn starts to investigate in order to verify the witness’ testimony – and soon encounters the young man’s family.
Inspired by a true story.
Technical Information
2015; Bulgaria, Netherlands, Sweden; Thriller; 105 minutes; DCP, HDCAM-SR; 1.77:1 (16:9); 5.1 mix; Original Language: Bosnian, English, Swedish
DIRECTOR
Iglika Triffonova
WRITER
Iglika Triffonova
D.O.P.
Rali Ralchev
EDITOR
Toma Waszarow
PRODUCER
Rossitsa Valkanova, Petra Goedings, Ulf Synnerholm
PROSECUTOR CATHERINE LAGRANGE
Romane Bohringer
DEFENDER MIKHAIL FINN
Samuel Fröler
DEYAN’S FATHER
Izudin Bajrovic
DEYAN-MIRO
Ovanes Torosyan
JASNA
Nermina Lukac
MILORAD KRSTIC
Krassimir Dokov
ICTY INTERPRETER
Igor Skvarica
DEYAN’S MOTHER
Labina Mitevska
IGLIKA 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
2020
International Film Festival Bosnia Herzegovina Looks Around
18 – 22 December
2016
Nov 08 – Aug 13 (in competition)
Oct 08 – 19 (in competition)
Istanbul –
INTERNATIONAL CRIME & PUNISHMENT FILM FESTIVAL
Special Mention
Oct 06
INTERNATIONAL CRIME & PUNISHMENT FILM FESTIVAL
Sep 30 – Oct 06
Aug 24 – 28 (in competition)
Yerevan –
GOLDEN APRICOT YEREVAN IFF
International Feature – Jury Special Mention
Jul 17
Jul 10 – 17 (in competition)
Apr 16 – 16
19TH ANNUAL CHICAGO EUROPEAN UNION FILM FESTIVAL
Mar 04 – 31
Trieste –
TRIESTE FILM FESTIVAL
Central European Initiative Award
Feb 02
Jan 22 – 30
2015
Tallinn –
BLACK NIGHTS – TALLINN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Special Mention
Nov 28
BLACK NIGHTS – TALLINN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Nov 13 – 29 (in competition)
Interview with director Iglika Triffonova
“When Bosnians or Dutch people watch the film, I am hoping they will consider me as one of their own. I hope it becomes like Goran Bregović’s tune “Weddings and Funerals Orchestra”, when the four female vocalists start singing “Aide Jano!”: nobody ever thinks aboutthe fact that one of them is Bosnian, the other Macedonian and the other two Bulgarian. The ecstasy, the depth of the pain and the indescribable beauty of hope become a wholesome one. The song resonates as if sung by four sisters. I hope the film will give out that same impression…”
2015-11-20
The relativity of Justice
“‘The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son’ (…) centres on a case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, but succeeds in being more than just a courtroom drama. Although the notion of justice, this pillar of democracy, is of paramount importance in Triffonova’s screenplay, the feature also reaches through to the wider space of what is both just and humane, regardless of the law.”
2015-11-19
ROMANE BOHRINGER
Romane Bohringer experienced acting and filmmaking from early childhood on through her father, the French actor Richard Bohringer. With him, she first appeared on the screen in 1986’s “Kamikaze”. But it was her performance as Miranda in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest“, directed by Peter Brooks, that first brought her broader recognition and led to further roles.
In 1993, Bohringer was awarded with the César for her performance in Cyril Collard’s successful “Savage Nights”. This was the beginning of her cinema career: Bohringer often played tormented but strong women, as seen in “The Accompanist”, “Mina Tannenbaum” and Gilles Mimouni’s “The Apartment”. She has appeared alongside actors like Gerard Depardieu in “Colonel Chabert” and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Rimbaud Verlaine”. Her most recent films include “The Ball of the Actresses” and Gilles Bourdos’ “Renoir”.
Romane Bohringer continues working for cinema, TV and theatre. She is married to actor and screenwriter Philippe Rebbot. The couple has two children and lives in Montreuil.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2012 Renoir
2009 Le Bal des Actrices
2000 The King is Alive
1996 L’Appartement
1995 Rimbaud Verlaine
1994 Le Colonel Chabert
1992 L’Accompagnatrice
1992 Les Nuits Fauves
IGOR SKVARICA
Igor Skvarica is an actor, known for “Porodicni album” (2011), “Sa mamom” (2013) and “Cefurji raus!” (2013).
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2013 Cefurji raus!
2013 Sa mamom
Short
2015 Da vam nacrtam
2013 Redikul
2012 Sistem
2011 Porodicni album
KRASSIMIR DOKOV
From 1978 – 1981, Dokov studied at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts – Sofia, Bulgaria – acting for drama theater in the classes of prof. Nikolay Lyutzkanov with assistant Margarita Mladenova. During his career, Dokov has played more than 50 characters in the theater and has starred in many features. Awards in the theater: 1988 – Best Leading Actor, Theater Festival, Bulgaria; 1989 – Best Leading Actor, Theater Festival, Bulgaria. He is a member of the Union of Bulgarian filmmakers.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2011 Avé
2010 Zad kadar
2009 Prima Primavera
2009 Kozelat
2009 Raci
2006 Nosht i den
2006 Razsledvane
NERMINA LUKAC
Nermina Lukac was born in Montenegro and moved to Sweden with her family as a small child. In 2012, she took the leading role in Gabriela Pichler’s “Eat Sleep Die”, which celebrated a huge success at various European film festivals and brought LukaÄ the Swedish “Gold Bug” award for the “Best Actress” and various other prizes.
Although celebrated as the European shooting star of 2013, Lukac doesn’t want to make acting her main profession. She was somehow overwhelmed by the success of “Eat Sleep Die” and prefers to continue her work as a youth pedagogue in Helsingborg.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2012 Eat Sleep Die
TV Series
2013 Sommarkväll
Ovanes Torosian
Ovanes Torosian is an actor, known for “Iztochni piesi” (2009), “Avé” (2011) and “Tilt” (2011).
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2014 Adultery
2014 Sadilishteto
2013 Otchuzhdenie
2012 Krapetz
2011 Avé
2011 Tilt
Short
2014 Lighthouse Woman
IZUDIN BAJROVIC
Izudin Bajrovic graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts, Sarajevo, in 1987. That same year, he became a member of the National Theater in Sarajevo, where he is still working until today. Bajrovic has played in various Bosnian theatres and is best known to foreign audiences for his appearances in “Halima’s Path”, “Fuse” and “On the Path”.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2014 Reket
2012 Halimin put (Halima’s Path)
2010 Cirkus Columbia
2007 Zivi i mrtvi
Short
2010 Na putu (On the Path)
SAMUEL FRÖLER
Samuel Fröler originally worked for a clinic specialized in adolescent psychiatry before he decided to become an actor. He attended the drama school in Göteborg and was a member of the ensemble of Stockholm’s City Theatre for several years. Fröler’s breakthrough came with the TV series “Tre Kärkelar”, where he played an officer of the Swedish air force. Impressed by his performance, Ingmar Bergman engaged Fröler to take the role of the director’s father in Bergman’s autobiographical film “The Best Intentions”(1992). “The Best Intentions” received the Palme d’Or in Cannes and Fröler was nominated for the prestigious Swedish film prize “Gold Bug” in the category “Best Actor”.
Fröler has starred in a great number of Scandinavian and international films and is noted for his appearances in “Pure” and in the TV series “Seks Som Oss”. Moreover, he is known as the Swedish dubbing actor of Shrek in the homonymous animation series and has released his own music album, which had lots of success and made it to the Swedish charts.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2012 Till det som är vackert (Pure)
2010 Pax
2003 Ulvesommer
2003 Octane
1998 Ögat (The Eye)
1992 Den goda viljan (The Best Intentions)
TV Series
2004 Seks som oss
1989 Tre kärkelar
LABINA MITEVSKA
Labina Mitevska was born in 1975 in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. She studied at the faculty of Art and Archaeology at the University of St. Kiril and Metodi (Skopje) as well at the European Film College (Denmark) and the University of Arizona’s Department of Art History. She started her career by coincidence, starting in Milcho Manchevski’s film “Pred Dozdot” (1994) in the role of Zamira, a young Macedonian Albanian girl. Her next appearance was in the Macedonian theatre production of Tuku Taka Pod Oblaka (All of a Sudden Under the Clouds). In 1996, Labina played a supporting role in Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), directed by Michael Winterbottom, who next casted her in “I Want You” (1998). In 2000, she had the lead role in the Czech film “Loners”, and next appeared in “Too Bad That Balkan Express Was Already Used”, directed by her sister Teona Mitevska. Beside acting, a couple of her essays have appeared in the Macedonian magazines “Start” and “Dnevnik”.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2012 The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears
2010 Stapki v pyasaka
2009 9:06
2009 7 avlu
2007 Prevrteno
Short
2008 Voix de garage
