YOU'RE STRONG!

Short Talk with Daniel Ahmakov (Director)

BEST SHORT STUDENT DOCUMENTARY FILM Category

22nd IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2025

Germany, Bulgaria, Fiction, Bulgarian, 00:22:00, 2024

Synopsis: A single mother living in Germany is floating downstream trying to stabilize herself financially. Her internal struggle with unfulfilled dreams and caring for her son put her on the brink of making a choice.

Biography: Daniel Ahmakov made his directing debut with a dance theatre performance of "When the Gods Were Born" (2006) with actors suffering from hearing loss. In 2007, he moved behind the camera and entered the world of cinematography. In 2016 Daniel earned a Master's degree in film directing. He is deeply touched by social causes and human rights issues. Daniel deeply believes that social movies are the motors and the unheard voices that lead us to change the future.

Daniel Ahmakov, director

Petar Penev: The team behind this film is relatively small. Apart from directing, you also handled cinematography. What were, in your opinion, the advantages and disadvantages of working with such a small team?

Daniel Ahmakov: The interesting thing is that the whole crew was just four people, mothers and their children, including mine, and then myself, doing the directing, cinematography, and basically everything else. So it was kind of a one-man show. What we wanted to do with the main character, Anelia, was to create something authentic to our personal lives at that moment. And, if possible, something that could also be inspiring for our kids, hopefully motivating them to be creative, to continue in this direction if they feel like it. We had just one and a half days to shoot and create the whole thing. The kids were helping, holding the clapperboard, doing sound, one was even the script supervisor. It was really fun. It felt like a family experience for all of us.

Petar Penev: This tight shooting schedule makes me think you must’ve done a lot of pre-production, maybe rehearsals with the actors or detailed planning?

Daniel Ahmakov: Not really, no. Actually, the script was written by Anelia, the main character. I asked her to write something very close to her own experience. We shot in her actual apartment. The story is fictional, but it’s built around her real life, just a different situation, but with the same emotions and feelings. From what I know, she was going through something very similar to what the character experiences in the film. So this process became a kind of therapy for her, something that helped her express herself creatively again, like she used to when she was younger. She was actually a trained actress, and I think this helped her reconnect with that part of herself.

 
Interviewer: Petar Penev

Editor: Martin Kudlac