All Girls

Director's note

All Girls is built on contrast. I place Sofia in 2007 as a fractured landscape – grey, post-socialist housing blocks against the bright beauty of the city centre. Between them stands a generation suspended, too late for the past, too early for the future. The visual language follows emotional truth. The film shifts from stillness to rupture. It begins observationally, then gradually breaks into handheld immediacy as reality takes over. Two cameras shape this descent: an ARRI Alexa Mini for Acts I–II and a 2007 Sony handheld operated by one of the characters in Act III, creating a found-footage aesthetic reminiscent of early 2000s American tragedy films. That way, we become active witnesses to the events as we watch. The actors shape their characters collaboratively; the roles are written for them and refined through improvisation. This is a film about female friendship, memory and youth shaped by systems that fail them. It draws from my own experiences growing up in 2000s Bulgaria, a country entering the EU with promises of a brighter future. Inspired by the events of the 2001 Indigo club tragedy in Sofia and very recent similar cases in North Macedonia and Switzerland, All Girls asks what remains when that promised future fails to arrive and what it costs to keep hoping that it one day will.

Screenwriter's note

I wrote All Girls between 2023 and 2024 in Los Angeles, while studying acting, screenwriting, directing and film production at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. There, we were taught: "Write what you know." So I began writing about home. I grew up in Bulgaria in the 2000s, between downtown Sofia and the Mladost (lit. "youth") neighbourhood district, where I spent my summers with my grandparents. Some of my happiest memories are there, with the children from that neighbourhood. As we grew older, our paths diverged. Some disappeared. Others ended up in prison. I was fortunate enough to pursue my dreams and leave for Hollywood. But I did not forget them. And I did not forgive the system that had failed them. The Indigo club tragedy was my first encounter with publicly televised tragedy and social injustice – seven kids lost their lives at an overcrowded nightclub. I was six when it happened. That same year, the world lost another kind of innocence on 9/11. In America, that loss is still remembered. In Bulgaria, we forgot.

That is why I wrote this story – not to blame or exploit grief, but to remember. All Girls is fictional, not a documentary or investigation. When I wrote the screenplay in Los Angeles, I believed the monster of corruption, negligence and indifference belonged to the past. I did not expect that, one year later, in 2025, a similar tragedy would happen in Kočani, North Macedonia. A year later, it happened in Switzerland too. Nothing has changed enough. That is why this story is not simply relevant but urgent. At Strasberg LA, far from home, I learned that art can do more than entertain – it can heal. It was only from that distance that I understood I needed to speak about my own country and experience as a woman growing up in the Balkans. I wrote All Girls because I remember what it was like. And because I believe cinema can make us look again at what we have learned to live with and refuse to forget.

Producer's note

At its core, All Girls is driven by a female-led perspective, both in front of and behind the camera, shaped by a collective of young actors and filmmakers who are actively co-creating the film through performance, improvisation and shared authorship. It is a story born from lived proximity to its world, reflecting urgency, youth and the fractures of a generation navigating systemic failure and personal loss in post-socialist Eastern Europe. The film is being created with partners who genuinely connect with its vision, and we continue to seek others who share its mission and values.
Starring: Vladinella Katzarska, Boyana Avdjieva, Boryana Manoilova, Ekaterina Lazarevska, Hristina Djurova, Volena Apostolova, Elly Kolleva, Zhaklin Daskalova, Anthony Penev, Martin Petkov, Philip Bukov, Denislav Marinchev and Rumen Troev.

Biography

Vladinella Katzarska is a Bulgarian actress and emerging film producer based in Sofia. She trained at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia. "All Girls" marks her first producing credit, where she works as associate producer with a focus on production coordination and organizational support. Alongside her work behind the scenes, she also stars in the film, bringing an intimate understanding of the project’s world and ensemble dynamics.

Profile

On Pointe Productions is a Sofia-based independent company focused on auteur-driven, socially grounded cinema with an international outlook. It champions female perspectives, supports emerging talent and produces socially relevant films through cost-efficient, environmentally conscious filmmaking.