VI edition
THIRST (STEP COUNTER)
Title | THIRST (STEP COUNTER) |
Original title | Jajda |
Year of production | 2015 |
Country | Bulgaria |
Scriptwriter | Svetla Tsotsorkova, Svetoslav Ovtcharov
Ventsislav Vasilev |
Director | Svetla Tsotsorkova |
ScripTeast Edition | VI |
Creative Advisors | Tobias Pausinger, Jean Luc Ormieres |
Head od Studies | Tom Abrams |
Krzysztof Kieślowski ScripTeast Award / Special Mention | – |
Producers/co-producers/ funding / | Front Film(Bulgaria), Cinemotion, Omega Films Production. |
Sales agent | Alpha Violet |
Distributor | Front Film |
Trailer | http://www.cineimage.ch/film/jajda/lbox_trl_trailer_1.html
JAJDA / THIRST (Trailer) – YouTube |
Poster | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4949088/ |
Festivals/ awards/ cinema results | · Crossing Europe Filmfestival 2016- Crossing Europe Audience Award – Best Fiction Film Svetla Tsotsorkova
· Nomination to European Film Awards 2016 – European Discovery of the Year – Svetla Tsotsorkova · Golden Rose 2015 Golden Rose Award for Best Cinematography – Vesselin Hristov and Golden Rose for Best Debut -Svetla Tsotsorkova · Haifa International Film Festival 2015 – nomination Golden Anchor Award for Svetla Tsotsorkova and nomination Carmel Award Best International Film – Svetla Tsotsorkova · Hamburg Film Festival 2015 nomination -Young Talent Award for Svetla Tsotsorkova · Istanbul International Film Festival 2016- nomination Audentia Award – Svetla Tsotsorkova, nomination Golden Tulip – International Competition – Svetla Tsotsorkova · Minsk International Film Festival 2015 – Special Jury Award – Children and Youth Films Competition for Svetla Tsotsorkova , Special Jury Award – Youth on Marche – Svetla Tsotsorkova · San Francisco International Film Festival 2016, nomination Golden Gate Award – New Director Svetla Tsotsorkova · San Sebastián International Film Festival 2015 – nomination – New Directors Award – Special Mention – New Directors Competition – Svetla Tsotsorkova · Sofia International Film Festival 2016 – Best Bulgarian Feature Film – Best Film Svetla Tsotsorkova · Thessaloniki Film Festival 2015 – nomination A Look at the Balkans Award – Balkan Survey Svetla Tsotsorkova · Transilvania International Film Festival 2016 – Special Mention – International Feature Competition Monika Naydenova (actress), Alexander Benev (actor), Nominated – Transilvania Trophy – Best Film – Svetla Tsotsorkova · Warsaw International Film Festival 2015 – nomination – Competition 1-2 Award -Best Film -Svetla Tsotsorkova · Zurich Film Festival 2015; nomination Golden Eye – Best International Feature Film – sSvetla Tsotsorkova |
Synopsis | The Mother, the Father and their 16-year-old son live on a hill, at the end of a village. They wash hotel sheets for a living. The water supply is inconsistent and they often find themselves without any water. A couple of drillers – a father and his daughter – arrive, in order to solve the issue. |
Full Credits | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4949088/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 |
Link to the project – archive | http://scripteast.pl/step-counter-the-notebook/ |
Eighteen-year old Lefty Junior disappears from the village of Lower misery during a thunderstorm. This takes place a day before Damla – the Turkish girl he loves, is to marry somebody else. During the search for Lefty Jr. along the river, Damla finds a notebook written by the boy. Hiding from her father and her future husband, she begins to read it.
He and little Damla were born on the same day. Lefty Jr. is a weak child. He gives more heed to his grandfather’s magical stories than to his father’s advice to run with a step counter in order to save himself from his “heart arrhythmia.” Damla, whose name means both “precious drop” and “heart attack”, is a stubborn child for whom the will to win trumps over the actual game. The two children’s growing up is a dance in which “who’s leading” is a topic that is never discussed.
The clashes occur when Lefty Jr. loses his father because of her. Then he looses her. After her departure, Lefty Jr. doesn’t stop running and counting his steps.
The new meeting of Damla and Lefty Jr. starts like a new game in which they dance as a young man and a young woman. This game turns out to be forbidden. The wrath of Damla’s father, the arrival of her fiancé Orhan and the announcement of the wedding turn everything on its head.
When these tales are completed, comes the storm.
Damla has read through Lefty Jr.’s notes. This isn’t a notebook, but a love letter to her, which ends with a code that indicates the number of steps to the place where he’ll be waiting for her. The counting down of the hours to the wedding turns out to be the counting down of the steps to love.

Bulgaria
Svetla Tsotsorkova
Svetla Tsotsorkova is a writer and director. After graduating NATFA, Sofia as a film director, she studied at the London Film School. While there, she won a place and participated in the Franco-British screen-writing workshop “Regards Croises.” After coming back to Bulgaria and working as 1AD for years, she directed the 20-min film “Life with Sophia,”(2004) which had a very successful festival life: Critics’ Week, Cannes’05, Sarajevo IFF ’04, Karlovy Vary’04, Munich IFF’04, Telluride IFF USA’05, Drama IFF’05, Cottbus IFF’05, etc. and won several awards: Jameson Short Film Award, Sofia IFF’04; 1st Prize Lodz, Poland’04, Outstanding Short Beijing IFF’04, Special Jury Prize, Poitiers ’05, Special Mention, Trieste’06, The Golden Lion, Taipei IFF’07, etc. After that the film was shown on Student Television Network USA, Bulgarian Satellite and also was released on its own at an art house cinema in Sofia for three weeks. In 2005 using the money from the awards, she made her next short “My Mother.” During the next few years, Svetla worked mainly as producer and 1AD. Lately she took part in a several short films as the main actress, some of them distinguished at international festivals like Sundance (Omelette) and Clermont-Ferrand (Portrait of a Family).

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