Smaragda - I got thick skin and I can’t jump
Smaragda - I got thick skin and I can’t jump | fiction/feature | Cyprus | drama | (in post-production)
Written and Directed by Emilios Avraam
With environmental sensitivities, ineffectual relationships and a career stuck in time, Smaragda, a middle-aged single woman, is pondering on what kind of legacy she will leave in this world. She starts working as a kids entertainer in a tourist resort and jumps on the social media bandwagon to gain exposure, while she goes through a journey of self discovery.
Shooting
We shot for 21 days
05/09 & 18/10-12/11 2023
Synopsis
Smaragda, a middle-aged single woman, moves in her recently deceased mother's house in a small touristy town in Cyprus, while taking care of her mother's guide dog. Having a career stuck in time and concerned with inheriting her mother’s degenerative eye condition, she starts pondering on what kind of legacy she will leave in this world. Failing to get back in the business, she is now in a financial deadlock so she starts working in a tourist resort as a kids entertainer, while trying to gain exposure in the world of social media using her environmental and moral stance with quirky ways. With her friends by her side, she learns, she falls, she heals and she comes to terms with her own existence.
Funding News
The film has been funded for script development, development and production by the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture.
Funding News
The film has been funded for development by the European Union’s Creative Europe MEDIA Program
Bark like a cat films has been funded for development, for 3 films it is producing (including “Smaragda - I got thick skin and I can’t jump”) through Creative Europe’s program MEDIA mini slate.
Workshops/Markets/Forums
cocoPITCH
2021
Smaragda was selected for the cocoPITCH 2021 by connecting cottbus, a networking platform focusing on Eastern European cinema during the FilmFestival Cottbus.
Smaragda was selected among 13 feature film projects in development. It will be presented to a professional audience of experienced producers, buyers, commissioning editors, world sales and financiers.
Writer/director Emilios Avraam and producer Tonia Mishiali are attended coco 2-5 November 2021 in Cottbus, Germany.
Dot.on.the.map Co-production Forum
2023
Writer/director Emilios Avraam and Producer Tonia Mishiali were selected to participate in Dot.on.the.map. co-production forum (an industry section part of Cyprus Film Days International Festival) to pitch the film.
First Films First
2019
Smaragda writer/director Emilios Avraam was selected to participate in First Films First, a Goethe-Institut Academy for Young Directors from South-Eastern Europe. The project was developed at First Films First in 2019 through AMP Filmworks and producer Marios Piperides. In 2020 it was acquired by Bark like a cat films to continue for further development, funding and production. The program concluded with the project pitched at Sofia Meetings of Sofia International Film Festival.
TFL Extended
2019
Smaragda writer/director Emilios Avraam was selected to participate in the Torino Film Lab Extended - Script Development workshops for Feature Film (7-10 June 2019 in Turin).
TFL Extended is TorinoFilmLab’s formula addressed to film professionals from all over the world, who wish to benefit from an intensive and immediate training through a 4-day residential workshop.
Looking for sales / distribution / festivals
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