Sofia International Film Festival

Ovanes TorosyanOvanes Torosyan plays one of the two leads in Konstantin Bojanov’s Ave, which was selected in the competition programme of the Critics Week at Cannes. The film’s premiere within the framework of one of the world’s most renowned festivals is today.

Ave started as a project at the 6th edition of Sofia Meetings.  

Ovanes has not seen the film yet and he shares his experiences only from the production process.

- What attracted you to the film?

I was in my second year as a student at NATFA when I attended a casting for Ave. I was offered the role of Kamen, but I rejected it at first. I was still very young then and I thought that this character wasn’t for me. I couldn’t connect with him at the time. I told myself that I could mislead them at the audition and accept the role, but why should I do it when I have nothing in common with the character. And so I spoke with the director and he offered me another role, an episodic character, which I really liked. I got the role, whilst my brother Tigran Torosyan and Luiza Grigorova where selected for the roles Ave and Kamen.

We started shooting, but had to stop at some point due to a lack of funds. Some time went by and Luiza and my brother were too old for their roles and there was a new casting. This time I auditioned for the role of Kamen and I won. At that point I was in my fourth year as a student and in those two years I grew a little and managed to understand some of the smaller details of the character’s personality. Before that he just wasn’t my man. 

You can read the whole interview on our website www.siff.bg

18 May 2011