V edition
The Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award 2011
THE PROSECUTOR THE DEFENDER THE FATHER AND HIS SON
Title | THE PROSECUTOR THE DEFENDER THE FATHER AND HIS SON (previous title FALSE WITNESS) |
Original title | |
Year of production | 2015 |
Country | Bulgaria |
Scriptwriter | Iglika Trifonova |
Director | Iglika Trifonova |
ScripTeast Edition | V |
Creative Advisors | Peter Medak, Donato Rotunno |
Head of Studies | Tom Abrams |
Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award / Special Mention | Krzysztof Kieslowski ScripTeast Award, Cannes 2011 |
Producers/co-producers/ funding / | KLAS Film (Bulgaria) Phanta Vision (Netherlands) Filmlance Int (Sweden) with support of MEDIA Development and Bulgarian National Film Center |
Sales agent | East West Film Distribution |
Distributor | East West Film Distribution |
Trailer | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUy7iBCAtTw |
Poster | http://www.eastwest-distribution.com/film/the_prosecutor_the_defender_the_father_and_his_son/ |
Festivals/ awards/ cinema results | · Golden Apricot Festival film of Yerevan 2016 – Special Jury Mention
· Sofia International Film Festival 2016 – Burgas Municipality Award ‘Silver Sea-Gull’ · Yerevan International Film Festival 2016 – Jury Special mention and nomination to Golden Apricot · Bulgarian Film Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, nominations for Best Feature Film and Best Script |
Synopsis | Documenting a key trial of the Hague Tribunal with criminal suspense, the film reflects on the great confrontations of our times – between Christians and Muslims, between liberalism and consumerist prosperity – through personal stories that change the fates of all participants. |
Full Credits | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3527510/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 |
Link to the project – archive | http://scripteast.pl/false-witness/ |
One of the first important cases of the Hague Tribunal against a Serbian war criminal responsible for the massacre and abuse of Bosnian Muslim civilians is at a dead end. A chance for a just verdict emerges with the testimony of a witness of the prosecution – a young boy claiming to be an orphan and to have been a member of the defendant’s paramilitary gvardia. The defense, however, finds the boy’s living father, and proves that the testimony of the witness is false.
The film characters turn to be key players in the chase of “uncompromising universal justice”. Through their personal stories, Balkan and European history and reality are confronted, which leads to a dramatic turnover of value systems. The boy’s lies tell the truth. The prosecutor, “the Iron Lady” as the media call her, blinded by her pursuit of justice, sends him away back to his motherland, sacrificing him. The boy’s father comes to The Hague from the Balkans to see with his own eyes that his son is alive, putting his child’s life at risk. The defendant’s lawyer turns against his professional principles, caring more about the father and son’s fate than he does about the fate of his client. Opening his heart to somebody else’s woe, the Westerner loses his conscientiously accomplished peace of mind and confronts his own cautiously concealed torment – he makes an irrevocably late attempt to approach his father – an already demented Russian immigrant, tucked away in a luxurious home for the elderly in the North of Holland.
Everyone has a motivation that goes beyond the role they’re given and everyone must accept the consequences of the game… For the men from the Balkans this is the fall of an illusion – that the West is the Promised Land. Does this coveted West have the resources to do good to those who don’t belong in it?

Bulgaria
Iglika Triffonova
Iglika Triffonova holds a degreein Film & TV Directing from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art in Sofia. In 1990 she wrote and directed the documentary “YEAR OF 1990” which won First Prize at “Prix Futura”, Berlin.
She is the author of more than 10 documentaries i.a.: “Possible Distances”, “Murder Stories”.
Her first feature film “Letter to America”, won 9 national prizes and it was the Bulgarian entry for Academy Award in 2001. “Letter to America” was selected by over 45 international festivals, among which: Montreal, Hoffer Filmtage, Tambov (Silver Vitiaz award) Thessaloniki, Kiev (FIPRESCI award and the Don Quijote prize of the FICC), Mannheim, Mar del Plata, Istanbul (Special Prize of the Jury), Karlovy Vary, Montpellier, Pussan, Noordelijk IFF (the MATAD’OR prize). Her 2nd feature “Investigation” won 11 national and many international prizes.

Udayan Prasad
“ScripTeast is the programme all the advisors wish they could have attended at the start of their careers. It would have saved all that stumbling around in the dark looking for the key that stimulates the imagination so much more effectively.”
BAFTA nominated, director of “My Son the Fanatic”, “The Yellow Hankerchief” and ”Opa!”, 5th edition ScripTeast creative advisor, UK

Tom Abrams
“ScripTeast’s top-notch team of professional advisors, each year’s talented group of participants, and venues in Poland, Germany and France continue to make it the very best development workshop in the world today.”
ScripTeast Head of Studies, Associate Professor – Screenwriting and Production at School of Cinematic Arts, USC, screenwriter and director, author of the script for the Oscar-nominated film “Shoeshine”, USA

Scott Alexander
“ScripTeast is a fascinating mix of cultures, political ideas, and voices. I learned a lot, and I think the participants learned a lot more. If only they served vodka!”
Golden Globe awarded author of “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Ed Wood” with two Oscars, 5th edition ScripTeast creative advisor, USA