The film “Bacha” by the Abkhaz director Atana Agrba entered the program of the British film festival Lift-Off Global Network.
Said Bargandzhia
“Bacha” - a short feature film by Abkhaz director Atana Agrba, participates in the famous British film festival Lift-Off Global Network.
“I sent the film [to participate in the festival] a couple of months ago. Usually, if you specify Abkhazia as a production country, the film is disqualified “for political reasons”. I had to specify Russia to let the world see the film. And then a letter came: the festival commission accepted our application, and the film was chosen for participation in the competition program,” the director shared.
Atana Agrba believes that the Lift-Off Global Network festival is “the world's only exhibition of true independent cinema.”
“It is also probably one of the few festivals aimed at supporting filmmakers in project implementation. But you need to go through stages that depend on the audience vote,” she explained.
The young director is a fifth-year student at the VGIK (All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography named after S. A. Gerasimov - ed.). The idea of the film submitted for the contest came to Atana when she was a first year student, but then she failed to implement it.
“I wrote a story for the script, but at that time there was no internal or technical resources, and I didn’t have enough knowledge. I set it aside and forgot. And three years later, I accidentally stumbled [on the script], decided to rewrite the story and give it a chance,” the director said.
Without revealing the plot of this story, she said that the film is set in a village where it has not rained for many years. The residents of this village, living in a world of superstitions and myths, blame the main character Maya, believing that the latter, with her presence, “brings trouble”. Bacha, after whom the film was named, is the name of the tractor. This is all what the director shared about the plot of his movie.
The actors of the Abkhaz drama theater played in the picture from the competition program, which Agrba is especially proud of.
“The performers of the main roles Milana Lomia and Benar Kove are very talented, I was proud of them before the film crew from Moscow. The guys, despite their little experience in filming, are very professional, competent, and most importantly, they treated this work with love and diligence. And I got a useful experience in working with such professionals,” said Agrba.
The shooting took place in the Abkhaz village of Baslata. According to Agrba, the work on the set turned out to be hard, but intense and memorable.
“The shooting process went “nervously” - so much so that we shot what was planned to be in 11 shifts in four shooting days. It happened that the shift lasted all 18 hours instead of the normalized 8 hours,” explained the director.
She especially remembered one shooting day — or rather, a night — when the climax scene was shot. According to the scenario, agricultural machinery was used in it - a tractor, in addition, it was necessary to provide the necessary lighting on the site.
“There was a night shift in the field where we filmed the final scene, there was no electricity nearby, and there was nowhere to connect a large amount of lighting equipment. We asked for help from the Emergency Ministry, and we were provided with a generator. Further, according to the scenario, it was supposed to rain. Incidentally, it really rained that night, but the camera does not record natural rain, so an artificial one was needed. We again turned to the Ministry of Emergency for fire engines [with water] - and they gave us them free of charge, helped on the site until the end of the shift,” said Agrba, calling the assistance of the Ministry of Emergency “invaluable support” for which she is very grateful.
A VGIK student recalls that because of all the technical difficulties, the shift did not change for a long time, and then, on top of that, they were suddenly announced a warning because of an impending thunderstorm.
“The already crazy rhythm of the shooting was doubled. There were about 50 people at the site. From the thought that I started all this “trouble”, on the one hand, it was pleasant, but at the same time embarrassing: because of my creative experiments, so many people rushed around the field all night. In general, a lot of volunteers responded, invested in the film without sparing themselves,” the director shared her feelings.
During the week, the short film “Bacha” will be available online at the festival website, it will be numbered 81. During the selection, the online votes will be taken into account, which each user can leave after a simple registration. Thus, every vote in favor of the Abkhaz film - a participant in the Lift-Off Global Network film festival - can influence its future destiny.
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