Snake - змија
A bitter-sweet story about an unusual friendship between a nine year old daredevil Mario and an eccentric gay man Borche, challenged by the prejudices and hatred of the parents in a remote Macedonian small town.
The Macedonian Film Festival apologises to our international patrons: this film can only be viewed in Canada.
Languages: Macedonian ( English subtitles)
Duration: 20 minutes
Genres: Short / Drama / LGBT+
Countries of Production: Macedonia 2020
Director Information:
Andrey Volkashin
Andrey Volkashin is a Macedonian screenwriter, director, and published author. His award-winning short films have played in major festivals around the world (Iris Prize, Brussels, Huesca, In The Palace, Drama, Tirana, Sofia, Sarajevo, Image+Nation). His latest short film “Snake”, opened at the 35th Brest ESFF in November 2020, and won the best short film competition at the 36th LOVERS FF, among many other awards and nominations. Andrey developed his first feature film project at Script Lab 2019 at the Torino Film Lab and is currently developing his TV series project at the Serial-Eyes program in Berlin.
Director's Statement:
The short film „SNAKE“ is a love letter to my childhood, and an attempt to reflect on how my earliest understanding of what is right and wrong was created. One day I heard the word „faggot“ and I asked my parents what it meant. Their answer was „god forbid“, as if I had asked what a „brain cancer“ or a „plane crash“ is. When we discovred my mom’s dresses in our grandma’s basement, well it became only natural for us – all boys, to try them on. It soon became very clear that we were not suppose to do that, even though, why exactly - was never realy clarified. There was a friendly man in our neighbourhood, who liked to tell me fables of mice and snakes. My dad told me that I must avoid this guy at any cost. Years later I discovered that he was gay.
As a child, I never understood how could people find a house mouse so terrifying. To me it seemed like the cutest little creature that for some reason everybody hated and feared. I also found toads, lizards and snakes to be beautiful too. And I always felt like I want to protect the rejected, the feared, the missunderstood, despite what everybody else was trying to tell me.
Cast:
Vedran Delidzakov, Marijan Najdovski,
Gabriela Petrusheva, Borce Nacev, Kostadin Uzunov,
Dimitar Stojchevski, Vaska Angelova, Marija Ilkova,
Elena Kochareva, Angelina Angelova
Crew:
Written & Directed by Andrey Volkashin
Produced by Elena Stanisheva
Director of Photography: Kiril Prodanov
Edited by Nevelin Vulchev
Music composed by Igor Vasilev - Novogradska