Andrey Paounov Retrospective  

A small town and its hopeful citizens are about to embark on a bright new journey. Massive rusty cranes, foreign investors and the joyful chants of cheerleaders carry the dream of a great nuclear future. Disturbed only by gigantic stinging mosquitoes, the townsfolk celebrate the atomic hurray by engraving the nuclear power plant logo on buildings and soup bowls. Amidst the apparent atomic prosperity, lies a past that no one wants to remember. Stories of shocking and horrible crimes loom on the city just like the dark clouds of mosquitoes descending onto its citizens. A world instantly transformed by ideologies, regimes and dreams of economic prosperity. The tales of characters whose lives intersect in a sinister past, nuclear future and the stinging mosquitoes flying through time, sealing their fate together.

Festivals and Awards

Docúpolis International Documentary Film Festival, Spain – Best Experimental Documentary
British Film Institute Awards, UK – Grierson Award
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic – Best Documentary - Special Mention
Madrid International Documentary Film Festival, Spain – Best Feature-Length Documentary
Mediawave, Hungary – Jury Award
Motovun Film Festival, Croatia – From A to A Award
Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia – Human Rights Award
Docufest, International Documentary and Short film festival, Kosovo – Grand Prix
46th International Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival, France
Shaken’s Stars IFF, Kazakhstan – Best full-length non-feature film
ASTERFEST Film Festival, Macedonia - Best Documentary
L'Alternativa – Barcelona Independent Film Festival – Best documentary

Andrey Paounov Retrospective

Director and scriptwriter Andrey Paounov was born in 1974 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He was a bartender in Prague, a cook in Washington DC, a gardener in Toronto, a boom operator in New York, and an accounting clerk in San Francisco. In June 2000 Andrey Paounov graduated from the Bulgarian National Academy for Theater and Film Arts (NATFIZ). He is a well known documentary director, winning the Silver Wolf at IDFA in 2004 for his debut feature Georgi and the Butterflies. His second feature The Mosquito Problem and other stories was included in the 46th International Critic's Week of the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.