The film follows Elena, a struggling farmer in a Moldovan village who decides to run for mayor. “I can’t remember the last time a marketplace presented such a compelling protagonist as Elena Santa,” said Polly Haythornthwaite, digital coordinator at the UK’s Java Films. “The film’s unique perspective comes not just from its focus on a rural village in Moldova, but the way it broaches the fascinating and difficult dynamics between three generations of women as they encounter change and conflict in both personal and public spheres.
” “I felt very connected to Elena, she seems to be a universal character that could speak to an international audience,” said Michaela Cajkova, founder of Prague-based world sales company Filmotor. “I definitely want to see the whole film and consider it.” The film is being produced by Ion Gnatiuc of Romania’s HaiDOC Productions.
It is looking for a further €50,000 of its €230,000 budget and searching for a sales agent as well as a festival world premiere for a 2025 launch. Three attendees all picked out the same trio of projects in the Docu Talents from the East strand, organised by Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival and for projects from Central and Eastern Europe in production or post-production.
Acquisitions executive Tijana Djukic of Current Time TV, Petra Babic of Croatian distributor Restart and Cajkova all noted , about the legacy of Second World War munitions dumped in the Baltic Sea, , about two Lithuanian fisherm.