The Girl Without Arms

A FILM BY TEODORA PIPEREVSKA

Synopsis

A girl without arms pursues an unattainable dream of freedom and perfection. But her flight takes her under the dome of the World Circus and she remains among the chosen, riveted to being a spectacle for hungry hearts. just the way they are in return

Test animated scene

Director’s statement

As a child I used to visit the circus. I was particularly impressed by the female acrobats - perfect beauty subjected to dangerous circumstances. I fell in love with them with an almost religious hypersensitivity.

We had a neighbor - a young boy, about 25 years old, without hands. Only shoulders. He always had a cigeratte in his mouth. How could he light it himself? Every morning he would go to the store with his teeth holding a shopping bag. There was no other way.

I have respect for the disabled people. They are people with a lack imposed on them by fate, a lack of usual comfort. This seems to put them in a special situation (State of exception).

When we are possessed by an ideal or a dream, it seems to me that we are disabled - we lack knowledge and skills. We need time and experience to achieve perfection and fly towards the horizon. Upon reach it, we find ourselves facing the unknown and it may not be what we wanted: some kind of freedom! Especially when we are being watched, even if that watcher is life itself (or a monkey with a cigar and whiskey).

The project is in the initial pre-production stage. Sketches of characters and environment, visualization of key moments of the action are made. Audio-musical references are sought.

I believe that the movie will be of interest to both discerning festival audience and mass audience. With bright visual solutions, enhanced by non-standard sound-musical elements, the movie will provoke the viewer and hopefully put him in a “State of exception”.