East of the West - Competition 2011 / Pankot ne e mrtov / North Macedonia, Serbia 2011
Forty-year-old Mirsa has a difficult task ahead of him: to reform his once popular punk band 17 years after they broke up, and appear in concert with them in the Albanian part of Macedonia. A punchy independent road movie by director and screenwriter Vladimir Blaževski about people for whom punk isn’t just music, it’s their whole life.
Mirsa is the former singer in what was once the most popular punk band in Macedonia, but it broke up years ago. He’s now forty, still living with his mother, and he occasionally sells drugs for Albanian dealer Gzim, who in return supplies him with grass on the cheap. Then one day Gzim comes up with an idea: Mirsa ought to get his band back together so they can perform at a benefit concert in Debar, a Macedonian city with an Albanian majority population. Mirsa has an almost herculean task ahead of him: after a period of 17 years, to locate and convince all the band members, some of whom left Macedonia after the break-up of Yugoslavia, to perform together once again in concert. On a minimum budget, director and screenwriter Vladimir Blaževski has turned in a punchy independent road movie about people for whom punk isn’t just music, it’s their whole life. He also uses black humour and insight to touch upon more serious issues and, thanks to the documentary techniques he employs in the film, he manages to achieve a sense of absolute conviction.
104 min / Color, 35 mm
International premiere
Director Vladimir Blaževski
/ Screenplay Vladimir Blaževski
/ Dir. of Photography Dimo Popov
/ Music Aleksandar Pejovski
/ Editor Blagoja Nedelkovski
/ Producer Darko Popov
/ Production Pank Film
/ Cast Jordan Simonov, Kamka Tocinovski, Toni Mihajlovski, Kiril Pop Hristov, Ratka Radmanovik, Vladimir Tuliev, Flora Dostovska, Dževdet Jašari
/ Contact Pank Film
www: www.pankfilm.mk
Vladimir Blaževski (b. 1955, Skopje, Macedonia) studied film direction at the Academy of Film, Theatre, Television and Radio in Belgrade (1978). Since graduating he has worked as a filmmaker, turning out several documentaries, commercials and a series of TV programmes. He has also been teaching film at university level since 1994. He was involved as co-screenwriter on Ivo Trajkov’s The Great Water (Golemata voda, 2004), among others. He also directed the feature films Hi-Fi (Haj-Faj, 1987) and The Revolution Boulevard (Bulevar revolucije, 1992).
Pank Film
Vladimir Komarov 33, 2/1, 1000, Skopje
North Macedonia
Phone: +389 712 558 64
E-mail: [email protected]
Darko Popov
Producer
Darko Basheski
Film Institution Rep.
Vladimir Blaževski
Film Director
Jordan Simonov
Actor
Kamka Tocinovski
Actress
Dimo Popov
Director of Photography
Hatka Smailovikj
First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.
