After turning heads in the IFFR competition with her first feature Bebia, à mon seul désir [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juja Dobrachkous
scheda film], and scoring a spot at the vaunted New Directors/New Films showcase in New York, Georgian filmmaker Juja Dobrachkous has announced the upcoming production of her sophomore effort, titled Isle of Skye. Dobrachkous and her producing partner Stephen Minervino have secured private funding, and plan to begin principal photography by the end of 2021. The team hopes to secure further support from an experienced British co-producer, alongside the director’s own production outfit Twice a Day.

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Isle of Skye, referring to the largest and northernmost of the islands in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, has a plot that dovetails with her prior work, focusing again on a central female character prone to angst and distraction. The film follows Anna, a 35-year-old painter and art conservationist who suddenly loses her husband. Her sister convinces her not to end her own life and they decide to pretend that Anna’s husband is not really dead, but actually staying on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of Scotland. It leads the sister to believe that Anna needs psychiatric care.

Dobrachkous spoke further about the film’s themes and reference points, which again draw upon classic Greek myth, as in Bebia’s inspired interpolation of the Minotaur’s lair: “My new project, Isle of Skye, examines the relationship between denial and belief. What is true? And which is more useful – belief or truth? To help address these questions, the story references the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. In this story, as the main character creates her imaginary world (or not), I am given huge possibility to use all of the tools of a visual artist.”

Producer Stephen Minervino also said, “Juja is such a unique and strong visual storyteller - her endings always surprise. The story and script are fantastic, based on the same Greek myth that inspired Romeo and Juliet.”

The upcoming film has yet to acquire a sales agent, but Bebia is currently being sold by newly-formed Athens outfit Endorphin. That film, set in Georgia where Dobrachkous grew up (before becoming a renowned painter and author again in Russia), followed a 17-year-old fashion model returning to reluctantly attend her grandmother’s funeral.