Erenik Beqiri
Project Name:
AFTER DARK
Producer:
Olivier Berlemont (Origine Films) , Pierre Mourey (On Film Production)
Country:
France / Albania
Year of lab participation:
2022
Lab edition:
10
Logline
Anna wants to make her relationship with Tom official by meeting his father. The problem is : Anna is a vampire. In the midst of Tirana’s chaos, she fights her own nature to keep her love alive.
Synopsis
After Dark is both singular and universal. Singular because of its territorial anchoring and the city of Tirana being a whole character, Albania being rarely shown in mainstream movies. But mostly because of its artistic proposal and the way it uses and twists the fantastic element, in an intimate and naturalistic way. It is also universal because of its topic of a love story, although it involves here a vampire woman.
Director's Note
In After Dark, there won’t be any fangs, crucifixes... The vampires are not immortal, they are a cursed extension of our society that cannot find where they fit in. I want to describe them as flawed sensitive beings, with desires and needs just like us, evolving in a chaotic city which is also struggling to find its identity.
The story also asks : can we really feel the same towards each other when we are so different ?
Director-writer
Erenik graduated in film directing at the Academy of Arts, Tirana. His last short film The Van was part of the official competition in 72’s editions of the Cannes Film Festival and was also shortlisted for the Oscars 2021. After Dark was selected as part of the Cinefondation Residence and Torino ScriptLab.
Co-writer
Marija Apcevska has BA in Film and TV Directing from FDA, Skopje and MA in Film and Media Production, NYFA, LA. She is Sarajevo Talent Campus and Berlinale Talents alumni. Her shorts have traveled to festivals worldwide and won several awards. Bardo premiered at Berlinale Generation and North Pole was part of Cannes Official Short Film Selection 2021. Currently she is co-writing After Dark together with Erenik Beqiri and developing her feature film, Spring Cleaning.
Producer profile
Origine Films has produced and co-produced 50 fiction shorts films to this day. We take great pride in defending different genres with strong individuality and 50% of our production catalogue consists of international coproductions. Our catalogue includes several multi award-wining short films, including three Palme d’or nominees : 37°4S by Adriano Valerio, Sali by Ziya Demirel, and more recently Erenik’s The Van that we developed from the very beginning of the project. We are now developping our first international feature coproductions.
Production company profile
Origine Films / 21 Avenue du Maine 75015 Paris, France
olivier@originefilms.fr / pierre@originefilms.fr
+33688744401
+33610641526
Production Budget
Production Budget in USD : 912 079 $
Confirmed Budget and source :
CNC : 24 582 $
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Région : 8 550 $
Albanian Cinema Center Development Fund : 21 376 $
Euro Media Co-Development Fund : 71 593 $
Genre:
Fiction, Drama
Language:
Albanian