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We are pleased to announce that Lambs in Wolfskin, written by Ivona Juka, has been selected for the 3rd edition of EWA’s scriptwriter’s residency in Berlin. She will work with Suzanne Pradel who is the attached script consultant to the programme on her script.
The high quality and diversity of the projects submitted made the hard decision-making process both complicated and inspiring but we are also pleased to announce the other shortlisted projects.
Two best friends, members of a special military unit, Tomica (23) and Robert (23) are separated on the battlefield. They go off in different directions of combat, each leading their own group of soldiers. In fierce battle, the enemy gets closer and retreat is inevitable. Tomica sees Robert’s group returning, but Robert is not with them. He asks a soldier where Robert is, but nobody gives him an answer. Tomica heads off to search for his missing friend. He goes from battle to battle which do not stop for months on a broad battlefield. He joins various Croatian military troops who interchange with one another due to the intensity of the combat areas. The war for him becomes a quest too; he goes from village to village, through the wild, goes behind enemy lines and searches for his friend, – dead or alive.
Ivona Juka‘s most successful film is You Carry Me. This strong drama had its international premiere at Karlovy Vary IFF, it was invited to more than 20 film festivals around the world and been awarded with 14 international awards. “You Carry Me” was competing for the title of the Best European Film and it was also the official entry for the 88th Academy Awards®. During the Oscars® campaign, the film was applauded by Variety and The Hollywood Reported, which led to Netflix noticing the remarkable „You Carry Me“ and offering to buy world rights. In 2016, „You Carry Me“ became the first film, not only from Croatia, but from the whole region, to be bought by the gigantic VOD service – Netflix and at this point, it is available for 125 million people to watch. Ivona Juka is a member of the European Film Academy, represented by ICM talent agency in LA.
The EWA Network’s Scriptwriter’s residency programme has shortlisted the following projects:
Al Alba, a dramedy by the Spanish scriptwriter/ director Fany De La Chica.
The Great Adventure, a mystery drama by the Romanian scriptwriter/ director Cecilia Ştefănescu
Triana is a jazz singer who works at the famous club Paris Blues in Harlem (New York). Alcoholic and excessive, her songs express the feeling of lack of love that floods her life after the break up with her boyfriend. Triana’s grandmother is dying and she needs to travel to Spain. „Mama Lola“ used to be a famous flamenco singer and before she died, she claims that Triana needs to follow the tradition and become and flamenco singer. After her death, Triana receives in heritage a land with olive trees and she has to decide whether to go back to New York and pursue her dream as a singer or stay in Andalusia (Spain) and follow the tradition related with flamenco and olive oil.
Estefania de la Chica, nicknamed Fany, is from a city surrounded by olive fields called Jaen, in southern Spain but she’s based in New York. Her Mum and aunts learned how to become strong, independent women from her grandmother, as she, in turn, has. With the supoprt of scholarships, she has studied cinematography at the School of Cinema Studies of Catalonia, in Barcelona, a MA in Documentary at the Royal Holloway University of London and the MFA in Directing/Screenwriting at Columbia University of New York.
Lucia a 35-year- old woman, goes with her husband, their boy, and another couple, who are their friends, at the beach, in a Bulgarian village by the border with Romania. Delighted with the villagers’ hospitality, with the places and the nice weather, the four adults and the boy seem to be spending a restful, carefree and uneventful holiday. But the newly-arrived Vladimir, a man who also turns out to be from Romania, spending his holiday in the small Bulgarian village, comes to perturb the stability of the group. Although ostensibly a stranger to them, he is revealed to be acquainted with Lucia, who is reluctant to acknowledge her relationship with Vladimir. Concurrently with the stranger’s arrival, there is an unforeseen occurrence in the peaceful village by the sea: a local child disappears without a trace, which puts both the police and the villagers on the alert. The testimonies of the people who were the last to see the child indicate Vladimir might be involved in the disappearance. A web of guilt, half-truths and betrayals is woven around this unexpected couple, formed by Lucia and Vladimir, who at first seem not to know one another, but turn out to be connected by a common past and driven apart by the recent occurrences.
Cecilia Ștefănescu studied Literature at the Bucharest University, where she later took a master of arts degree in Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature.
In 2002, she made her debut with the novel Love Sick, which has been published in three editions. The novel has been translated into French, Italian, Polish and Spanish. Her second novel, Sun Alley, was translated in English. She wrote the script for Love Sick (2006) directed by Tudor Giurgiu, an adaptation based on her homonym novel. The film had the international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
Ferdinand 13, a short movie, was her directorial debut. The film won the special mention in Zagreb Film Festival. Morski Briz (2018), a short movie, was selected in Transilvania Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Central and Eastern European Film Festival.
Suzanne Pradel is the script consultant attached to the programme. Suzanne is an international script consultant, lecturer and bookscout. For many years, she has been working as a script expert for European Film Funds. In 2009 she founded the BUCHSCOUT AGENCY which specializes in novel-to-film adaptations as well as international script consultancy, developing sophisticated TV features and cinematic features.