The Lion At The Back

Source: Christos Hadjichristou

‘The Lion At The Back’

New films by Kazakhstan’s Assel Aushakimova, Belarus-born Darya Zhuk and Ukraine’s Tonia Noyabrova are among the 13 projects selected for the 27th edition of the East-West co-production market Connecting Cottbus (coco), which runs from November 5-7.

Aushakimova, whose second feature Bikechess was pitched at coco in 2021 and went on to screen at Filmfestival Cottbus last year, returns with Astana Internet Stars which focuses on a highly-place ministry official whose reputation and future existence is put into jeopardy by a compromising video leaked to the internet.

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Zhuk, who came to international prominence with her 2018 film Crystal Swan and had also pitched a subsequent feature project at coco in 2021, will also attend Cottbus with her dark science fiction satire Exactly What It Seems, based on a short story by Tatsyana Zamirovskaya. It is already structured as a co-production between Zhuk’s own US outfit TurnstyleTV and partners from Poland, Estonia and The Netherlands.

Noyabrova, whose second feature Do You Love Me? had its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama in 2023, has the Beta Film production subsidiary Sommerhaus Filmproduktion as the German producer for her new feature project I’ll Wait For You Last Summer.  Sweden’s CommonGround Pictures is onboard as a co-producer.

Lithuanian writer Birutė Kapustinskaitė will pitch her feature directorial debut Beginners, an existential comedy drama about three generations of women struggling with personal tensions and buried fears as they search for a missing boy on the Lithuanian-Russian border.

Further projects to be presented to the audience of producers, sales agents, commissioning editors and other industry representatives active in East-West European co-production will include Polish director Tomasz Habowski’s comedy-drama Radio Amateur, which won the Wroclaw feature film studio award at the Polish Days this July.

Slovenian filmmaker Žiga Virc is pitching Purgatory blending fiction with found footage to explore man’s ties to land, food and each another. Hungary’s László Csuja is presenting his multiplot, satirical, magical-realist Some Good News set in present-day Transilvania.

Meanwhile, the cocoWIP selection of six works in progress includes new films by Tonia Mishiali, Dan Radu Mihai and Nikola Ljuca.

Cypriot writer-director-producer Mishiali, who pitched her debut feature Pause at coco in 2015, will be showing footage of her second feature The Lion At My Back which was shot on location on Cyprus this summer with co-production partners from Luxembourg, and Greece.

Mihai and his producer Livia Rădulescu will be presenting his science fiction road movie Monarch centring on a man who has the ability to control electricity.

Ljuca will be in Cottbus with his contemporary drama Rattlesnakes with elements of suspense thriller and melodrama.

cocoPITCH Projects 2025:

Astana Internet Stars (Kaz), dir: Assel Aushakimova, prods: Dana Sabitova & Assel Aushakimova, 24 FPS

Attention Whores (Cz-Slovakia), dir: Alica Bednáriková, prods: Valeria Borkovcová & Tomáš Hrubý, nutprodukce/Jakub Viktorín, nutprodukcia

Beginners (Lith), dir: Birutė Kapustinskaitė, prods: Rūta Petronytė & Justinas Pocius, Smart Casual

Bekki (Kyrg), dir: Aygul Bakanova, prods: Chingiz Narynov, Citylab Production/Aida Usonova, Kyrgyz National Film Studio

Exactly What It Seems (US-Pol-Estonia-Neth), dir: Darya Zhuk, prods: Veta Krechetova & Darya Zhuk, TurnstyleTV/Dariusz Jabłoński & Izabela Wójcik, Apple Film Production/Ivo Felt & Volia Chajkouskaya, Allfilm/Max De Wolf, Topkapi Films

Helmet (Pol), dir: Roman Przylipiak, prod: Aneta Dobies, House Media Company

I’ll Wait For You Last Summer (Ger-Swe), dir: Tonia Noyabrova, prods: Sophie Cocco, Jochen Laube & Fabian Maubach, Sommerhaus Filmproduktion/Jonas Kellagher, CommonGround Pictures

Lava Love (Gr-Ice), dir: Steve Krikris, prods: Stelios Mavrodontis & Nicholas Alavanos, Filmiki Productions/ Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson, Zik Zak Filmworks

Purgatory (Slovenia-Austria-Gr), dir: Žiga Virc, prods: Iza Strehar & Žiga Virc, Lilit/Rok Biček, Zwinger Film/Minos Nikolakakis, Asphalt

Radio Amateur (Pol), dir: Tomasz Habowski, prod: Marta Szarzyńska, Watchout Studio

Saros (Turkey), dir: Ozan Yoleri, prods: Ilgım Coşar, Monday Film/ Alara Hamamcıoğlu Bayraktar & Sinan Kesova, Vigo Film

Some Good News (Hun), dir: László Csuja, prod: Anna Szijártó, Cinesuper

The Inspector’s Debt (Bul-Lat), dir: Teodora Markova, prods: Martin Markov & Kristina Despotova, Mirrormind/Uldis Cekulis, VFS Films

cocoWIP projects 2025:

Monarch (Rom-Cz-Fr), dir: Dan Radu Mihai, prods: Livia Rădulescu, Redwood Productions/Paul-Razvan Macovei & Tudor Hermeneanu, Armadillo Productions/Pătru Păunescu & Dan Radu Mihai, Dash Film/Julietta Sichel, 8Heads Productions/Simon P. R. Bewick, Tajine Studio scifi TPS 2022

Rattlesnakes (Ser-Slovenia-Cr-N.Mac-Gr-Bos Herz- Mon), dir: Nikola Ljuca, prods: Nikolina Vucetic, Biberche Productions/Ales Pavlin & Andres Stritof, Perfo Production/Damir Teresak & Ana Grbac, Maxima Film/Tomi Salkovski, Skopje Film/Yorgos Tsourgiannis, Horsefly Films/Zoran Maksimovic, Palchica Productions/Djordje Vojvodic, Bitter Frames Production

Swaps (N.Mac-Cz-Bos Herz-Bulg), dir: Gjorce Stavreski, prods: Gjorce Stavreski & Ivana Shekutkoska, Fragment Film/Alžběta Janáčková, Silk Films/Nikolina Vucetic, Palchica Productions/Angel Apostolski, Push Pull Production

The Champion (Cz), dir: Bohdan Karásek, prod: Ondřej Lukeš, Beginner’s Mind

The Lion At My Back (Cyp-Lux-Gr), dir: Tonia Mishiali, prods: Tonia Mishiali, Bark Like A Cat Films/Katarzyna Ozga & Nicolas Steil, Iris Productions/Marinos Charalambous & Vladimir Subotic, Avaton Films

What Gods Thinks About Animals (Rom), dir: Claudiu Mitcu, prods: Claudiu Mitcu, Parada Film/Alina Tarbă, We Are Basca

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