A short film project by Guillaume Protsenko

1. BEARS(Working title)
Short fiction project by Guillaume Protsenko
3 bis rue de Varize
28000 Chartres
France
+79263701773
info@mvmt-films.com
SYNOPSIS:
After a violent fight with her French husband, Olga decides to take
distances with him, to leave France for a while and take her young daughter,
Charlotte, with her to Russia. Without warning, they leave the house and move
to a holiday rental apartment on the Normandie shore, waiting for their pass-
ports to be ready. There, they spend some happy time, floundering on the end-
less sand beaches at low tide. But they won’t be able to hide long, as the artificial
bubble of happiness she built around her and her daughter, blows up. What
was supposed to remain a couple crisis will turn into a kidnapping. This will be
the beginning of a vicious circle of cynism and violence from which Charlotte
will be the poor and innocent victim.
(The story is inspired from a true story of a French-Russian couple who
several times kidnapped their own daughter from eachother)
- GENRE: Family drama.
- LENGHT: 15-20 min
- TARGET AUDIENCE: 12+
- PRODUCTION FORMAT: 35mm
- SHOOTING LOCATION: Basse Normandie, Cabourg (France)
- SHOOTING LANGUAGE: French (main), Russian.
- TACKLED ISSUES: Family, divorce, immigration, kidnapping.
- PROVISIONAL BUDGET: 80k €
Script & Directing: Guillaume Protsenko, Image: Marton Vizkelety, Sound: Igor Tarasov
Production: MVMT Films (France)

2. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“If we could measure the distance that separates us from the ones we think are
the closest, we would get scared.”
Jean Cocteau / Opium
Two years ago, a piece of news started a wave of debates concerning
the custody rights of children of binational couples. The pretty sordid story
couldn’t reach a moral conclusion, as both the parties involved seemed to have
been guilty of misapprehention and had resorted to the use of pointless vio-
lence. But one thing was sure: the poor young girl was suffering the most from
the hate between her parents and from the lack of legislation; being turn and
turn about violently kidnapped by both her Russian mother and her French
father, and taken, from country to country, like a war trophy.
This story appealed to me as a particulary violent one. But the ridicu-
lous escalation of violence (both parents resorted to mafia-like methods to
get their child back) wasn’t as interesting to me as the mystery of the origin of
such a blind violence within a couple.
How can such a wide gap open between people that loved each
other? Did the cultural differences play a role in the process? How does
the perspective of never see your child again emphasize the whole situ-
ation? Which place is left for the child’s interests in such a conflictual
context?
The movie won’t offer answers to those questions, but will instead ex-
amine the psychological mechanisms and the chain of events that led this cou-
ple to not even asking themselves those questions, anymore and hurt the ones
they love. But may be, the proximity of a real exterior physical threat to their
child could set their mind right before they reach a point of no return in their
couple?
By introducing the obviously symbolical element of the escaped bear
in the story, I wish to take distance with the widely spread realistic social es-
thetics in which this kind of subject is usualy treated, therefore underlining
the crosscultural essence of the couple and of the story itself. The movie could
be the result of Arnaud Deplechin meeting Andeï Zviaguintsev: an unlikely
esthetical mix that would play a game of bluring borders between symbolical
realism and realistic symbolism . This is the challenge I put myself in front of:
to manage a synthesis between my two countries and two schools of thoughts,
French and Russian, in order to find a way out to this crual story...
The “child” of this two ideas of cinema, imbodied in Charlotte
and her point of view on the world, throws an objective look to the story: she
unconditionaly loves both of her parents. It’s up to her to build herself against
all odds
PROVISIONAL PRODUCTION PLANNING:
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2011: PRE-PRODUCTION
MARCH 2011: PRODUCTION
APRIL-MAY 2011: POST-PRODUCTION
RELEASAE DATE: JUNE 2011
3 bis rue de Varize
28000 Chartres
France
+79263701773
info@mvmt-films.com