Wounded Angel, Emir Baigazin's new project, gains ARTE award at European Film Market 2014

Wounded Angel, a new project of Kazakhstan film director Emir Baigazin, has won the award of the Franco-German TV network ARTE at the European Film Market 2014 in Berlin, Germany, Tengrinews reports from Berlin. Representatives of ARTE handed the 6,000 Euro prize to the shooting crew. In 2013 the Wounded Angel project was selected for production and distribution funding by the international Berlinale Residency fellowship program. Kazakhstan's film director worked on his film with script consultants from the Nipkow Programme and other experts from the industry. In a workshop towards the end of the Residency, their producers also received feedback from experienced industry professionals and assistance in preparing the projects for the international market. After the Berlinale Residency program was over the filmmakers returned to Berlin to present their projects with their producers to potential co-producers and financers at the European Film Market 2014, held on February 6-14. The European Film Market (EFM) runs for nine days as part of one of the most important film festivals in the world, the Berlinale. As the first major film event of the year, it is a magnet for international industry professionals, and is seen as a barometer for the upcoming year in film. The President in Charge with International Relations for ARTE André de Margerie pointed out the particular talent of the young director from Kazakhstan and the work of dynamic crew of international producers during the awarding ceremony. Emir Baigazin is developing his new project together with the new producing team that includes Beibitzhan Muslimov, Anna Vilgelmi, Alex Chang from Switzerland and French Film Company Capricci Films. "The ARTE prize primarily means our project attracted attention and got a quality mark. I'm very pleased to get the award. It is a great support for the team which is working hard in Kazakhstan now," Emir Baigazin said. Wounded Angel is a sequence continuing his trilogy about problems of teenagers. "I don't specialise in making films about teenagers and school life. It is just a mean of share universal ideas. The main scene of Harmony Lessons was the school, but the story of Wounded Angel movie takes place during summer holidays. We have already casted the leading characters, and it is the preparation period now," Emir Baigazin said. Harmony Lessons, the first part of the trilogy, tells a story of a 13-y.o. schoolboy Aslan who lives in a small Kazakh village. Aslan is tidy and organized, a perfectionist. Bolat, the leader of a boys' gang, publicly humiliates Aslan. Aslan never forgives the bully and calmly and methodically prepares a terrible revenge for him. He practices on cockroaches, torturing them on a miniature electric chair, and assembles his own gun. Later a new student Mirsain comes to school, he stands up for Aslan, never knowing what will come out of it. The debut feature film of Emir Baigazin has already won more than 25 awards at international film events, including a Silver Bear of Germany's Berlinale, a special jury prize of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the Grand-Prix of the Switzerland Film Festival in Basel, the Best New Director Grand Jury Prize of the Seattle International Film Festival, the Grand-Prix of the International Film Festival in Slovakia and many others. By Aizhan Tugelbayeva