Short Film Forum

SOIL

Directors: Kiril Karakash & Svetislav Podleshanov
Producers: Kiril Karakash & Svetislav Podleshanov
Country: North Macedonia
Genre: Documentary
Estimated runtime: 10'
Total estimated budget: 50,000 Euros
Looking for: Producer/Co-producer; Funding; Technical Collaboration; Post-Production Services; Distribution & Sales;

Synopsis:
“Soil” is a metaphorical visual portrait of 400 children growing up and attending school next to a 15,000 tons of toxic arsenic waste. In the seemingly peaceful village of Lojane, an abandoned arsenic mine lies just a hundred meters from the local primary school. During one school day, the children discover the ecological catastrophe that is silently and insidiously killing the earth, water, air, but also the innocent lives of children.

Director's short bio:
Directors and writers Kiril Karakash and Svetislav Podleshanov are graduates in film directing and production from ESRA – Skopje. In 2016, they co-founded Opium Film, focusing on creative documentaries and poetic storytelling. Their work includes the fiction feature Theosis (2016), the short doc The Water (2018), and their first feature documentary Ironman, currently in post-production after seven years in the making. Alongside filmmaking, they mentor young talents through workshops at schools and universities across Macedonia, fostering the next generation of storytellers.