Inspired by the eponymous play by Nobel Prize Nominee Yordan Radichkov and reinterpreted for world audiences by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Andrey Paounov, January is a bold fiction debut from a director who has made a name by exploring, with a sense of humour, the existential absurdities of the post-socialist state in the language of cinema.
Five men caught in a limbo between life and death, past and present, communism and capitalism, known and unknown, try to resolve a mystery, which slowly devours them.
In the middle of nowhere, five men are stuck in a snowstorm. One has to cross the Woods to reach town, but that’s madness in the midst of winter: the wolves are hungry and can be heard howling all night long, and who knows what other creatures roam these woods…?
Directed by Andrey M Paounov (Georgi & The Butterflies, The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories), and written by Andrey M Paounov and Alex Barrett (London Symphony), January won a Special Jury Prize and The Critics’ Guild Award at Golden Rose Bulgarian Fiction Film Festival, was an official selection at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and won Best Director at the Sofia International Film Festival.
