Both are at the head of the jury of the “Venice Days”
It is interesting how Mina and Vesela work together – an established animator director and a remarkable actress. Both with prestigious international awards and ambitions in their fields.
–
“We complement each other a lot in our work. Mina is very careful in her vision, she is very artistic, she works with a position and she knows what she wants to say. He and the film is her position – the student to the teacher “, shares Vesela.
And Mina continues: “Vesela feels the states of the characters, the acting, the mise-en-scène, and she is very attracted to the dramatic line, it’s very nice to get the story out.”
But both report that they complement each other very well in the organizational work, because a film is a great homology. “It’s very good to work in a team – one starts to fail and give up – the other picks it up. In editing, as well as in documentary cinema, you don’t know where what is happening will go.
The difficulties are many
and at such a moment
failures
are common
But I have this quality that I don’t give up, no matter what happens, I don’t give up. And Mina has a kindness, a delicacy. I’m not so delicate, Mina is much more balanced and a tolerant person. We think we will still build a very good tandem for work. “
Their debut feature film “Cat in the Wall” started from the competition in Locarno in 2019 and in 2020 won the award for best Bulgarian feature film at “Sofia Film Fest”.
One week ago, their new film “Women Really Cry” was a success in the “Special Look” competition in Cannes, and the world film community learned that they were invited to head the prestigious “Venice Days” program at the world’s oldest film festival.
Here is part of the press release of the Venice Film Festival:
“They are full of passion and determination and are receiving applause from film professionals around the world –
the remarkable
directing and
production duo
Vessela Kazakova and Mina Mileva is part of the young Bulgarian cinema, which puts Bulgaria in the focus of attention from 2013 to the present, 2021. The two ladies have been on the same wave in creative terms since their documentary debut “Uncle Tony, the Three Fools and DS” , accepted with contradictory reviews mainly due to the political charge of history, especially in Bulgaria, where prejudices on the topic of ideology, gender and race still have a serious impact.
Vesela and Mina will arrive in Venice at the head of the jury of the “Giornate degli Autori” program after the extremely warm reception in Cannes of their latest film – “Women really cry”. Their work competed in the “Special Look” competition program, and Screen International described the film as “a provocative and captivating drama that combines personal and political themes.”
For the first time, two ladies, who are directors and producers, will head the jury of the Venice Days, which awards a director’s prize, accompanied by a check for 20,000 euros. The final discussion and the jury’s decisions will be broadcast live on social media on September 10, 2021.
Mina and Vesela are committed to speaking “in one voice” – as they do in their films.
The decision to head the jury is revolutionary and in the very spirit of the jury itself, which is made up of 27 young film lovers, representing all European countries – part of the European Parliament’s 27 Times Cinema program, co-organized by Venice Days. , The LUXURY Audience Award of the European Parliament and Europe Cinemas, is in partnership with Cineuropa.
In Venice, this initiative is coordinated by the artistic director of the Karlovy Vary Festival, Karel Oh.
“Mina Mileva and
Vesela Kazakova
are women, activists,
feminists
and filmmakers,
– says the artistic director of “Venice Days” Gaia Führer. – We are glad that they accepted the offer to head the jury of the “Venice Days”, because today more than ever we need a combination of cinematography and active position. We need people who can
to break down borders
through the cinema, yes
pave new ones
roads
In their works we find vitality, a bold combination between public and personal themes, between personal and collective rights, between form and content. Mina and Vesela’s cinema is smart, full of compassion, provocative, furious, ironic, lively and extremely honest. I hope that these values will be found in this year’s selection of the competition program “Venice Days”. We wish success to Mina and Vesela!
A few words about
their film
“Cat in the wall”:
We will call the acting debut of the directorial duo Mina Mileva and Vessela Kazakova a bonsai film, because it turns a block of flats in London’s Peckham working-class district into a model of British society, critics write. It is not difficult to believe in the absurdly realistic story that tells “Cat in the Wall”, and in a frankly documentary style. Mina Mileva has lived and worked as an animator director in the UK for about 25 years. If Mineva and Kazakova had failed to find the right tone, this definitely hybrid film (on the verge of documentary and feature) could easily fall apart. The risk in this case wins, and this is the battle that the war wins, as they say. And somehow carelessly and unpretentiously. Mina and Vesela! Together!
– .
