Axis of Life

Axis of Life

Axis of Life / Atanas Hristoskov / 01:55:00 / Bulgaria

14th Antakya International Film Festival, International Best Film

Director - Atanas Hristoskov
Writer - Teodora Ivanova, Nevena Kertova, Georgi Ivanov
Producer - Victor Francess, Kalinov Brothers
Key Cast - Lars Simonsen, Alexandar Aleksiev, Vladimir Mihaylov, Strezo Stamatovski, Clive Russell, Marina Suma

Axis of Life

When a revered spiritual master embarks on his final journey to choose one of his disciples as his successor, the pilgrimage becomes far more than a test of devotion. As they cross dangerous mountain passes, fragile bridges suspended over abysses, and untamed wilderness, each traveler is drawn into an invisible world where encounters with wild animals, a mysterious clairvoyant, and uncanny signs begin to dissolve the boundaries between fate and free will.

Director Biography - Atanas Hristoskov

Atanas Hristoskov was born in Sofia in 1976. He has an education in Economics, Filmmaking and Body Psychotherapy. His socially engaged debut feature film, N1 (Number One), received the Golden Rose Award for Best Bulgarian Feature Film in 2011. A filmmaker and storyteller, he is also the founder of the Estorium Archive — a digital “human library” dedicated to collecting and preserving thousands of personal stories from around the world. Atanas is a keen explorer of new audiovisual forms and genres, blending traditional storytelling with multimedia and VR. While searching for the depths of human existence in his latest documentary and fiction cinematic work, he is also working in the field of investigative journalism and anticorruption documentary filmmaking.

Filmography:
Axis of Life – Feature film, 110 min, 2025
Estorium Archive – more than 120 short biographical documentaries - 2020-2025
18 – Feature film, 75 min, 2016
Just Like The Movies – Documentary, 90 min, 2016
The Generation – Interactive documentary, 30 min, 2015
N1 (Number One) – Feature film, 71 min, 2011

Director Statement
The script of Axis of Life found me at a moment when I was taking a completely different path in my life - about as far away from filmmaking as one can get. It happened in a magical place: an ashram in India.
What I immediately loved about the story was its hidden depth and its narrative structure, which deliberately avoids easy rewards. Instead, it demands patience - patience to reach the end, and even to reconsider it afterward. This quality is embodied in the film itself. There are no fast-forwards, no dopamine-driven key moments, no “I’m too busy for that” glances at a laptop while commuting from point A to point B.
Axis of Life invites a meditative state of mind - something we sorely miss today, as instant gratification increasingly shapes our lives and our perception of the world as merely a projection of our immediate demands. While this alone is reason enough to see the film, the beauty is that it offers much more - if one is willing to breathe slowly with it.