16/03/2023 - Bulgarian documentary filmmaker Tonislav Hristov's fiction feature debut tells of a personal search for a place in the world against the backdrop of illegal immigrant smuggling
16/03/2023 - Bulgarian documentary filmmaker Tonislav Hristov's fiction feature debut tells of a personal search for a place in the world against the backdrop of illegal immigrant smuggling
Unforgivable Takes Home Top Prize at Palm Springs ShortFest
Ellise Shafer, provided by
FacebookTwitterEmail
“Unforgivable,” a film hailing from El Salvador, won the best of the festival award during the 2021 edition of the Palm Springs International ShortFest.
Directed by Marlén Viñayo, “Unforgivable” follows a hitman for the 18th Street gang as he serves his sentence in an evangelical Salvadorian prison, where he is punished not only for his crimes, but for being gay. Selected by a jury consisting of 2020 ShortFest best of festival winner Bérangère Mc Neese and Sundance Festival programmer Ania Trzebiatowska, “Unforgivable” will receive a $5,000 cash prize. The honorable mention in the best of festival category went to French film “Palma.”
Tonislav Hristov is currently in the middle of the shoot for his first fiction feature,
The Good Driver. The new feature is being staged by Finnish production company Making Movies Oy, represented by
Kaarle Aho, and by Hristov’s Soul Food (Bulgaria). The project was presented at the 2021 Sofia Meetings as a work in progress and is currently looking for new production partners in order to cover post-production.
(The article continues below - Commercial information)
The screenplay is written by Aho, Hristov and Bulgarian director-screenwriter
Konstantin Bojanov, and it is based on a character from
The Good Postman: Hristov tells Cineuropa that the fiction is a “thematic sequel” to the documentary. The protagonist is Ivan, a Bulgarian taxi driver working and living in the Golden Sands seaside resort, slowly saving money in order to go back to Finland – where he used to live with his ex-wife – and make amends for his past mistakes.