THE CHOICE 

Format: Short fiction film
Genre: Coming-of-age drama / Youth drama
Status: In development
Estimated length: 25–30 min
Country: France
Language: French
Target audience: Youth / arthouse

Logline

During a forbidden winter expedition into the mountains, a group of teenage athletes crosses an invisible line — forcing one of them to face a choice that will define who he becomes.

Project Focus

The Choice is a coming-of-age drama about the moment when a youthful game turns into real responsibility.
Set against the harsh beauty of a mountain region, the film explores how moral decisions are shaped not by ideology, but by fear, loyalty, and the price of silence.

Key Themes:

• Moral choice and personal responsibility
• Peer pressure and loyalty
• Fear and courage
• Collective guilt vs. individual action
• Adolescence as a testing ground

Artistic Direction

The film combines realistic, grounded observation with strong atmospheric tension. Winter landscapes, darkness, snow, and physical exhaustion become extensions of the characters’ inner states.
The camera follows the protagonists closely, emphasizing bodily effort, breath, and silence, allowing nature to function as a moral space rather than a backdrop.

Production Notes

Setting: Small industrial town, mountains, winter forest
Visual contrast: Everyday discipline (sports training, school) vs. chaos of the nocturnal journey
Physicality: Sports training as a foundation of character and ethical endurance

Creative Team

Screenwriter: Elena Saubanova
(based on an original story by Azretali Saubanov)
Producer: Sauban Film Productions
Director: To be attached.

SUNFLOWERS 

Format: Short fiction film
Genre: Coming-of-age drama
Status: In development
Estimated length: 10–12 min
Countries: Bulgaria / France (co-production)
Language: Bulgarian
Target audience: Youth / arthouse / family

Logline

A boy sent to a boarding school follows his friends on a forbidden journey — where a childish adventure turns into a confrontation with fear, danger, and the instinct to survive.

Project Focus

Sunflowers is a lyrical coming-of-age film inspired by childhood memory.
Through a seemingly harmless escapade, the story captures the fragile moment when a child first faces real danger — and instinctively crosses the invisible line between play and responsibility.

Key Themes:

• Childhood independence and risk
• Fear and courage
• Friendship and peer pressure
• First encounter with mortality
• Memory as a formative experience

Artistic Direction

The film is conceived as a poetic and realistic childhood recollection.
Visual contrasts — bright sunflower fields, water, open landscapes — coexist with sudden tension and silence.
The camera observes the world from the child’s height, allowing nature and physical experience to replace explanation and dialogue.

Production Notes

Setting: Boarding school, countryside, sunflower fields, lake
Production approach: Natural locations, child-centered storytelling
Visual motif: Sunflowers as a metaphor of childhood openness and vulnerability

Creative Team

Screenwriter: Elena Saubanova
(based on the short story “Sunflowers” by Azretali Saubanov)
Producer: Sauban Film Productions
Co-production: Bulgaria
Director: To be attached.

ZOYKA

Format: Short fiction film
Genre: Coming-of-age drama / Family film
Status: Script completed — in development
Estimated length: ~15–18 minutes
Country: France
Language: French
Target audience: Family / youth / arthouse

Logline

During a summer in a nearly abandoned mountain town, an eight-year-old boy risks everything to save his dog — and learns what responsibility and loyalty truly mean.

Project Focus

Zoyka is a humanistic coming-of-age film about the birth of responsibility.
Through a child’s bond with his dog, the story captures the moment when empathy becomes action and loyalty demands a personal sacrifice. The film portrays childhood not as innocence without consequence, but as a space where moral awareness quietly begins. Without dramatization or sentimentality, Zoyka affirms kindness, care for others, and the formative power of small, decisive choices.

Themes:

• Childhood and responsibility
• Loyalty and sacrifice
• Moral choice
• Humanism
• Relationship between humans and animals

Artistic & Visual Intent

The film is conceived in a naturalistic and intimate style. Landscapes play a crucial narrative role, reflecting the emotional journey of the protagonist.
The camera stays close to the child’s perspective, privileging silence, gestures, and observation over dialogue.
Natural light, restrained camera movement, and realistic sound design emphasize authenticity and emotional truth.

Production Notes

Setting: Mountain town and surrounding roads.
Shooting region: France (rural / mountainous area).
Production approach: Lightweight crew, limited locations, strong emphasis on performance and atmosphere.
Animal role: Central narrative element, treated with respect and realism.

Creative Team
Screenwriter: Elena Saubanova
Producer: Sauban Film Productions
Director: Antoine Béguin
 

Series Potential & Audience Positioning

Zoyka, Sunflowers, and The Choice are conceived as stand-alone short films, yet together they form a coherent narrative universe focused on childhood, adolescence, and moral awakening.

These three projects may serve as the foundation for a mini-series or a connected series of films for children, teenagers, and family audiences. Each story explores a different stage of growing up — from intuitive compassion, through instinctive survival, to conscious ethical responsibility.

Rooted in realism and humanist values, the films avoid cynicism and spectacle. They are honest, compassionate, and emotionally accessible, offering young viewers stories in which courage is quiet, choices have consequences, and kindness matters. In a contemporary media landscape often dominated by irony and aggression, this trilogy proposes an alternative: light-filled, truthful storytelling that speaks across generations and invites shared viewing within families.

— Federico Fellini