Fiction feature “The Shift” by Reinis Kalviņš, which received the Latvian National Film Award for the best debut, produced by studio “Mistrus Media” in collaboration with “Picture House”, is selected for the International Competition Section at Sofia International Film Festival (SIFF), which will be held for the 25th time in the capital of Bulgaria.
Photo: Andrejs Strokins
Sofia International Film Festival is the biggest film festival in Bulgaria. It began in 1997 and attracts more than 85 000 spectators annually. The festival aims to present the best of the contemporary cinema to local audiences and regional Bulgarian and Balkan cinema to international audiences, as well as to encourage cooperation between local and international filmmakers. Since 2003 the festival has International Competition for first and second films and is included in the FIPRESCI calendar. Since 2003 the festival has also competition for regional films and national short films (Jameson Short Film Award). Since 2009 we introduced International documentary competition. In 2007 Variety placed Sofia IFF among the Top 50 world unmissable film events for industry. In 2010 Sofia IFF was accredited by FIAPF as a competitive specialized feature film festival and became the only Bulgarian film festival recognized by FIAPF nowadays. SIFF is the only Bulgarian film festival recognized by FIPRESCI (https://siff.bg/en/; https://online.siff.bg/).
“The Shift” is a criminal drama, which tells about one night events in the life of a young man Mareks (portrayed by Edgars Ozoliņš). Mareks is a taxi driver who works at night in Riga to support his son. An envelope with the company’s „black box” money is stolen from his car. Marek must make up for what he has lost as soon as possible and, hoping to find profitable customers, he goes to the airport and goes around Riga hotels. Marek ignores unwritten taxi laws, upsets the delicate balance between competing taxi companies, and as morning approaches, stolen money is nowhere near his biggest problem.
Film is supported by State Culture Capital Foundation, Creative Europe MEDIA, as well ArkoGints, SDG Lightning, Tet, LTV.
More information:
Anete Ruperte,
Studio Mistrus Media
+371 26076550
anete.ruperte@mistrusmedia.lv
Facebook.com/MistrusMedia