Levelk | Level K

Facts

Original Title

Kaymak

Genre

Drama

Production Year

2022

Country of Origin

Macedonia, Denmark, Netherlands, Croatia

Language Spoken

Macedonian

Length

106 mins
Festival
Official competition Tokyo Film Festival (world premiere)

Director

Milcho Manchevski
Scriptwriter
Milcho Manchevski

Cast

Sara Klimoska, Kamka Tocinovski, Aleksandar Mikic, Simona Spirovska, Ana Stojanovska, Filip Trajkovikj

Production Company
Banana Film

Producer
Jane Kortoshev

Release Date
TBC

Synopsis

Kaymak is an irreverent, unconventional and poignant love story – or, rather, two love stories.

Eva and Metodi are young, rich and successful. He wants to have children, but she fears pregnancy. One day Eva drives to the village her family came from. There she arranges for a relative with intellectual disability to move in with them. She has a plan.

Danche and Caramba live in a crumbling house below Eva’s and Metodi’s luxury high rise. They are late middle-aged and feeling left behind. Every day Caramba comes home with fresh kaymak – soft cream cheese. Danche does not suspect that Caramba has fallen for the cheese monger at the green market until she finds them having sex in her marital bed.

The quiet rebellion of ordinary women and men against roles imposed on them by society makes them heroes of a story where everybody is both a victim and a perpetrator. Underneath its lighthearted exploration of the eternal search for love and happiness, Kaymak tackles more complex social issues – human trafficking, surrogacy, infidelity and sexual liberation.

Director & Producer

The New York Times included Milcho Manchevski’s film “Before the Rain” on its list of the best 1,000 films ever made and Rolling Stone put his music video “Tennessee” on its list of best 100 videos ever. Manchevski has directed seven features (“Before the Rain”, “Dust”, “Shadows”, “Mothers”, “Bikini Moon”, “Willow” and “Kaymak”), 50 short forms, and an episode of “The Wire”, winning over 40 international awards (Golden Lion in Venice, Independent Spirit, FIPRESCI, an Academy Award nomination, film of the year in several countries and awards for experimental film, MTV, commercial, etc.). His films are part of the curricula at scores of universities. He lives in New York, where he writes fiction and essays, takes photographs, creates art and teaches.

During his 25+ years of ‘on-the-ground’ experience, Jane Kortoshev has worked with the likes of Karl Baumgartner & Thanassis Karathanos, Cedomir Kolar & Marc Baschet, Nik Powell, Andras Muhi, Sebastien Delloye, Labina Mitevska, Danijel Hocevar, Dunja Klemenc, Mirsad Purivatra, Amra Baksic Camo and Stefan Kitanov. In 2008 Kortoshev co-founded and was the managing director of a commercials production company in his native Macedonia. “Kaymak” pairs Kortoshev with executive producer Ian Prior and director Milcho Manchevski for the second time, after their successful collaboration on Manchevski’s “Willow”, which Kortoshev also produced.

Co-Producers

Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen is a seasoned producer; her films and TV-productions have travelled all over the world and have been seen by millions of people. Credits include Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “Border”, local hit “Summer of ’92” and Oscar-nominee “The Wife” starring Glenn Close. Sørensen has produced films with esteemed directors such as Lars von Trier, Nikolaj Arcel, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Omar Shagawi, Morten Hartz Kaplers, Heidi Maria Faisst, Mikkel Munch-Fals, Samanou Sahlstrøm, Kasper Barfoed, Bo Mikkelsen, Fenar Ahmed and Per Fly. These films have been featured at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, San Sebastian, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Toronto and Göteborg. Earlier productions include “Antichrist”, “Melancholia” and “A Royal Affair” which achieved an Oscar-nomination for Best Foreign Language Film Sørensen is Executive Producer and CEO of Meta Film, which she founded in 2010.

Els Vandevorst founded Isabella films with producer Wilfried Depeweg in 1997. She studied at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam. Vandevorst already booked tremendous success as a film student. The film Alaska (directed by Mike van Diem and produced by Vandevorst) won the Student Oscar. From the start the company aimed at working both in the Netherlands as well as internationally, (co)producing movies for acclaimed directors such as Lars von Trier, Alexander Sokurov, Thomas Vinterberg, Martin Koolhoven, Stijn Coninx, Ineke Smits, Ágnes Kocsis and Christophe van Rompaey. Since February 2018 daughter Isabella Depeweg is an equal partner in the company and hopes to respectfully incorporate fresh burgeoning energy to the prodigious reel. This new partnership focuses on the production of feature films which should be destined to have commercial potential and which appeal to an international audience because of their artistic value, accessibility and beauty. To match the difference in age and experience Vandevorst and Depeweg are looking for undiscovered raw talent as well as settled and acknowledged filmmakers.

Cast

Simona Spirovska (“Danche”)

Spirovska received her master’s degree from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje, then joined the Theater for Children and Youth. She is also a member of the Artopia Association and appears in international productions, most notably in Italy, winning several international awards for her stage performances. Spirovska has been a prominent activist in Macedonia over the last fifteen years. “Kaymak” is her breakthrough on the big screen.

Play Video

Ana Stojanovska (“Violetka”)

Stojanovska comes from a family of actors. She graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje in 2010. In 2009 she was discovered by Milcho Manchevski and landed the lead in his acclaimed film “Mothers”. This led to a few international projects, such as “Faith Love and Whiskey” and “#Just saying”. In 2014 she was invited to join the Macedonian National Theater. Her other film and TV projects include “The Liberation of Skopje” and the TV series “Insider”.

Aleksandar Mikic (“Caramba”)

A legend of stage and screen in his native Macedonia, Mikic boasts a rich and varied career. After graduating from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Skopje in 1992, he joined the Macedonian National Theater. His film career includes Milcho Manchevski’s Venice Golden Lion winner “Before the Rain”, the Thessaloniki Audience Award winner “Secret Ingredient” and Mostra de Valencia’s Golden Palm winner “The Great Water”.

Play Video

Sara Klimoska (“Dosta”)

Klimoska rose to prominence as one of the three leads in Milcho Manchevski’s acclaimed “Willow”. Since then Klimoska had the lead in the Focus Features’ Sundance entry “You Won’t Be Alone” by Goran Stolevski. Klimoska’s recent roles include the German feature “Nico” as well as leading roles in “Sabatier Effect”, “Lena and Vladimir” and “Bauk”. In 2020, Sara was honored with the Best Film Actress Award in Macedonia and was a European Shooting Star at the 2021 Berlinale.

Filip Trajkovikj (“Metodi”)

Trajkovikj has over thirty roles under his belt at Dramski Teatar in Skopje. He graduated at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in 2006. The role of Metodi is his first lead in a film; he has previously appeared in Rajko Grlic’s “Border Post” and the tv series “Hardliners” and “The Markovski Family”.

Play Video

Kamka Tocinovski (“Eva”)

Tocinovski’s award-winning work in cinema, television and theatre spans some two decades. An alumna of both Berlinale and Sarajevo Talent Campuses. Big Screen roles include “Punk’s Not Dead” which won the East of West Award at Karlovy Vary and the Audience Award in Sofia. Other credits include Goran Stolevski’s “You Won’t Be Alone” which premiered at this year’s Sundance, Igor Ivanov Izi’s “Only Human (aka Homo)” and the US genre film “Angels Fallen”.

“I wanted to tell a love story for grown-ups. Life is too rich, too full of possibilities, people love in too many different ways for us to accept the hypocritical fairy tale of boy meeting girl, boy losing girl, boy getting girl, then living happily ever after in a missionary position.
Who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong? What is normal? Is it society, the family, the individual? The ‘progressive’ West or the ‘primitive’ East?”

– Milcho Manchevski

Social Media Marketing

Examples of social media clips and EPKs which could be used in the marketing of the film on different platforms to different audiences.

Facts

Synopsis

Director & Producer

Milcho Manchevski

Jane Kortoshev

Co-Producers

Meta Louise Foldager Sørensen

Els Vandevorst

Cast

Simona Spirovska (“Danche”)

Ana Stojanovska (“Violetka”)

Aleksandar Mikic (“Caramba”)

Sara Klimoska (“Dosta”)

Filip Trajkovikj (“Metodi”)

Kamka Tocinovski (“Eva”)

Social Media Marketing

Behind the Scenes

LevelK Team

Tine Klint

(Founder & CEO)

Debra Liang

(Head of Sales)

Niklas Teng

(Head of Traffic & Festivals)

Laura Bonde Pedersen

(Sales & Acquisitions Coordinator)

Natascha Degnova

(Head of PR & Marketing)

Copyright 2021 | LevelK