The Magic Life of V

Generation 14plus 2019

‘I was really out of myself. It felt really weird and good. And I let some of these feelings out.’

Since she started live action role-playing at the age of eleven, Veera has taken part in about 30 games. Each new game means a new identity: something that gives her strength and allows her to slip out of her own skin; to escape herself. The reason for her desire towards repeated transformation is uncovered in small, intimate steps. Tonislav Hristov gradually reveals a young woman whose past still casts long shadows into the present. Home-movie fragments woven through the film like tattered, washed-out relics reveal a father who drinks, and from whom Veera is still trying to protect herself as well as her brother Ville, who has mental disabilities. At long last, Veera finds the strength for a confrontation.

by Tonislav Hristov
with Veera Lapinkoski, Ville Oksanen, Asta Tikkanen, Slava Doycheva, Heikki Oksanen, Mike Pohjola, Mikael Saarinen Finland / Denmark / Bulgaria 2019 Finnish, English 86’ Colour Documentary form

With

Veera Lapinkoski
Ville Oksanen
Asta Tikkanen
Slava Doycheva
Heikki Oksanen
Mike Pohjola
Mikael Saarinen

Crew

Written and Directed by	Tonislav Hristov
Screenplay	Kaarle Aho
Co-Written by	Lubomir Tsvetkov
Cinematography	Alexander Stanishev
Editing	Anne Jünemann, Tonislav Hristov
Dramaturgy	Anne Fabini
Music	Petar Dundakov
Sound Design	Jacques Pedersen
Sound Editing	Jacques Pedersen
Motion Graphics Designer	Todor G. Todorov
Colour Correction	Todor G. Todorov
Production Managers	Maria Vilkki, Maarit Laaksoharju, Camilla O'Connor, Mari Lehtinen, Vladimir Karanikolov
Producers	Kaarle Aho, Kai Nordberg
Co-Producers	Kirstine Barfod, Andrea Stanoeva
Co-Production	Kirstine Barfod Film Kopenhagen Soul Food Sofia

World Sales

CAT&Docs

http://www.catndocs.com http://www.catndocs.com

Produced by

Making Movies

http://www.mamo.fi http://www.mamo.fi

Photos

Tonislav Hristov

Born in Vratsa, Bulgaria in 1978, he studied engineering at the University of Ruse. In 2003, he moved to Helsinki and began to study film. The Magic Life of V premiered in the World Cinema Documentary Competition of the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. His previous documentary, Hyvä postimies (The Good Postman), premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam in 2016, went on to screen at Sundance and was nominated for a European Film Award in 2017.

Filmography (documentaries)

2005 Hercules; short film 2008 Perhe (Family Fortune) 2011 Rules of Single Life 2013 Soul Food Stories 2014 Love & Engineering 2015 Unelmien kulisseissa (Once Upon a Dream – A Journey to the Last Spaghetti Western) 2016 Hyvä postimies (The Good Postman) 2019 The Magic Life of V

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019