CEFF 2021 - A Dose of Happiness (Доза Щастие)
Bulgarian actress Yana Titova's first film follows a young woman whose search for happiness takes her and her daughter on a road that leads to hell and back. Based on a memoir by national television producer Vesela Toteva, whose own daughter Valentina Karoleva, leads the cast.
Synopsis:Vesela's search for happiness led her into an early marriage that went cold by the time she was 20. Breaking away from her husband, Vesela takes a job waiting tables at a night club, where she meets Ivan, twice her age, who takes her in with her 3 year old daughter Valya, on a condition that Vesela finish high school.
With diploma in hand, she goes back to work nights at the club and while away her days there. One day the angelic Joro turns up in the club and takes Vesela into a bar back room for a smoke.She wakes up the next morning in withdrawal; and later learns her life is now all about heroin. Paying the dealer Millen for fixes, who is glad Vesela has a rich boyfriend, brings her relationship with Ivan to the breaking point. Joro becomes Vesela's playmate and lover.
Ivan cannot understand why Vesela needs so much money. She hides from Ivan to fill the stairwell with acrid smoke and steals away to meet Joro and get high in the woods behind their building. With Joro on a hill near the highway one afternoon, she suddenly finds herself alone. Vesela's sister Bistra is incredulous at first but takes her to a quack doctor. The remedy fails and Vesela keeps using. When Ivan kicks her out, Vesela and Valya move in with Bistro and Vesela takes a job at a posh restaurant. The owner Lenny is concerned but she is well liked and tries to keep her habit a secret.
Valya understands only that her mother is sick. However, one day Vesela cannot wait to get home before shooting up. With Joro at the wheel, she asks Valya in the back seat to help mommy get better by closing her eyes. But the little girl peeks…
CAST:
Vesela - Valentina Karoleva
Joro - Dimitar Nikolov
Tony - Aleksandar Aleksiev
Ivan - Assen Blatechki
Veli (Vessela's mother) - Silvia Lulcheva
Krasi - Irmena Chichikova
CREW:
Director/Writer: Yana Titova
DoP: Martin Balkansky
Set Designer: Ivelina Mineva
Costume Designer: Mirela Vassileva
Editor: Bohos Topakbashian
Composer: Christopher Barnett
Producers: Aleksandar Aleksiev, Nickolay Stoichkov
Executive producer: Nadezhda Tzvetkova, Denis Krupnov, Anna Krupnova
Associate Producer: Lucius Barre PRODUCTION COMPANIES:
NO BLINK (Bulgaria)
REASON8 Films (UK)
SALES AGENT:
REASON8 Films (UK)
„Доза Щастие“ преразказва реални събития от 90-те години в България и среща зрителите с една емоционална и лична история. Търсейки щастието, Весела и нейната дъщеря случайно попадат в порочен кръг, от който измъкването се оказва почти невъзможно.
https://neterra.tv/plus/a-dose-of-happiness
Yana Titova, who is a respected screen and theatre actress, earned an MA in Filmmaking from the New Bulgarian University. As an actress, she has won numerous theatre and movie awards, including the Bulgarian Film Academy Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. As a director, she has her short films The Bridge, Solveig, The House and 88MHz widely screened and garnered numerous awards.
88 MHz (2016) Short Documentary - Director/Writer
Awards:
Audience Award at Master of Art Film Festival 2017
Festivals:
Assim Vivemos - Brazil's International Disability Film Festival 2017
Roma Cinema Docs 2017
International Film Festival of Red Cross and Love is Folly International Film Festival 2017
The House (2016) Short Drama - Director/Writer
Awards:
Best Pitched Project at In the Palace International Film Festival
Finalist at Selby International Film Awards 2016
Festivals:
Trinity International Film Festival 2016 Golden Rose Film Festival 2016
Golden Rose Film Festival 2016
Solveig (2015) Short Drama - Director, Writer
Awards:
Winner Best Balkan Short at Bridge Film Festival 2015
Winner Best Upcoming Film Director at Cinewomen 2015
Winner Best Costumes at La Rioja es de cine Film Festival 2016
Festivals:
Golden Rose Film Festival 2015 Cabriolet Film Festival 2015
International Bosphorus Film Festival 2015
In the Palace International Film Festival 2015
New Wave International Short Film Festival 2016
Texas Ultimare Shorts 2016
Headline International Film Festival 2016
Women's Only Entertainment Film Festival 2016
Chennai International Film Festival-2016
See a Paris International Film Festival 2016
Cee Ningbo China Film Festival 2016
International Open Film Festival (IOFF) 2016
La Rioja es de cine 2016
Sose International Film Festival 2016
KIN International Women’s Film Festival 2016
The Bridge (2013) Short Drama - Director, Writer, Actress
Festivals:
London Short Film Festival 2014
Sofia International Film Festival 2014
In The Palace International Film Festival 2014
