SNAKE
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.
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Andrey VolkashinDirector
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Andrey VolkashinWriter
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Elena StanishevaProducer
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Vedran DelidzakovKey Cast"Mario"
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Marijan NajdovskiKey Cast"Borce"
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Gabriela PetrushevskaKey Cast"Mother"
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Borche NachevKey Cast"Father"
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Vaska AngelovaKey Cast"Sister"
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Project Type:Short
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Runtime:19 minutes 59 seconds
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Completion Date:January 5, 2020
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Production Budget:41,600 EUR
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Country of Origin:Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
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Country of Filming:Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
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Language:Macedonian
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:1:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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OUTshine LGBTQ+ Film FestivalMiami
United States
August 23, 2020
World Premiere -
Iris Prize LGBT+ Film FestivalCardiff
United Kingdom
European -
MEZIPATRA Queer Film FestivalPrague
Czech Republic
Czech -
Film Front International Short Film FestivalNovi Sad
Serbia
Serbian
Best Film in the region -
BREST European Short Film FestivalBrest
France -
Cheries-Cheris Festival du film LGBTQ de ParisParis
France -
FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL SIGNOS DA NOITEParis
France -
TLV FESTTel Aviv
Israel -
MERLINKA Queer Film FestivalBelgrade
Serbia
ERA Award - Best Film
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.
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.