Milana
Sokolova

OUTSIDE SALEM

Outside Salem  follows Amity Foster and Elizabeth Willard, two best friends who are roped into accusations of practicing witchcraft. After publicly defending the town outcast, Susanna Smithe, from witchcraft accusations, a slew of fabricated evidence lands Amity in jail along with the accused. Elizabeth teams up with her crush, Thomas Howe, to break the two of them out of jail and together, the band of four embark on a ridiculous adventure to acquit Amity and Susanna and free the town of the puritanical shame that nearly drove them to murder.

FIRST IMPRESISONS

First Impressions is a romantic comedy about a girl bringing her boyfriend home to meet her parents for the first time, and he makes a horrible first impression.

ALIEN!PUNK!
EXPLOSION!

Two aliens crash a punk party with one goal: to destroy humanity. But to their own surprise, one falls in love with a human.

AND YOUR HOME IS?

Reflections on the concept of home. What constitutes home for a migrant?

ONE CRAB STORY

Follow the endearing journey of Greg, a charismatic Dungeness crab navigating San Francisco´s winter waters, and the local fisherman, in a heartwarming nature doc that takes a dark, unexpected turn.

ANCESTORS

Rethinking Kazakhstan´s heritage through the lens of centuries of suppression of the rich nomadic culture.

THEFT FOR GOOD

The theft of the most valuable possession always happens when you least expect it. But the girl might find much more than just her belongings.

OH! To Be a Star

Synopsis — Almaty, 1998. Four-year-old Denis Ten skates on frozen puddles in a country with one ice rink and no figure skating club. His father builds him skates from old boots and plastic bottles, and his mother pawns her gold chain to get him onto real ice. When the family’s money runs out, Oxana makes a choice that will define both their lives: she leaves her husband behind and takes Denis to Moscow to turn his gift into a career.

Development — loneliness, a cruel first love, and punishing training push Denis to the edge, until legendary coach Frank Carroll brings him to Los Angeles and a new life. But a chance reunion with his childhood friend Ilya reminds him that an entire nation is watching. As Denis carries Kazakhstan toward the 2014 Sochi Olympics through injury and pain, the cost of his mother’s bet grows clearer. So does the question of what remains of him once he wins the medal. The story stretches beyond his own career, to the boy he inspires and the legacy he leaves behind.

Themes and tone — at its core, this is a story about sacrifice: what a child owes his parents, an athlete owes his country, and a person owes himself. It is an intimate sports drama in the vein of Rush, Foxcatcher, and I, Tonya, with a growing sense of an inevitable end. Visually, it contrasts the warm, grainy winters of 1990s Almaty with the cold, clinical light of Moscow rinks and the sun-bleached freedom of Los Angeles, where the ice is both a stage and a cage.

Status — feature screenplay, first draft, developed as a Bachelor’s thesis project at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2025/26). Currently seeking producers and development partners.

The Lost Ones

When three young people in Madrid, Lund, and Lisbon each start to lose their way, a mysterious stranger slips into their lives to help them, only to discover that the one most lost is himself.

Synopsis — The Lost Ones follows three young people in three European cities, each quietly losing their way. Eva (23), an observant optimist in Madrid, is burning out under a constant stream of errands. Alan (20), a musician in the small Swedish town of Lund, can no longer hear the music he used to write. Jan, in Lisbon, is standing at the edge of a cliff above the ocean. Each of them is visited by Fedya, a strange and gently ironic figure who appears beside them in fields, cars, and bathrooms, sometimes as a person and sometimes as a voice in their head.

Development — Fedya tries to rescue each of them in his own way. With Eva, he slips into her thoughts and leads her out of her compulsive routine into an empty field, where she has to face the question of whether she is lost or simply walking toward a destination she can’t see yet. With Alan, he becomes a mischievous muse, a sceptic and a sparring partner, pushing him through sleepless nights of composing. The turning point comes when the story turns on Fedya himself. Trapped in an endless white void, he hears the voices of the people he tried to help. Jan calls him a traitor who wasn’t there when it mattered. Eva tells him he never really listens. Alan offers a way out: stop playing the rescuer and save yourself. What’s at stake is less whether the three succeed and more whether anyone can find meaning, and each other, before life slips past. The film ends with a small gesture of connection: a note with phone numbers and a hesitant first call.

Possible references: Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders), The Double Life of Véronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Night on Earth (Jim Jarmusch).

Themes and tone — at its core, the film asks what our purpose in this world is. It’s about burnout, the passing of time, loneliness among crowds, and how helping others can be a way of avoiding yourself. A recurring idea: single moments mean nothing on their own, like isolated beats in a track, but woven together they make a life. The tone is melancholic and tender, with dry humour and touches of magical realism. Visually, the film moves between three cities with three distinct rhythms: Madrid’s fast evenings, Lund’s sleepy old streets and open fields, and Lisbon’s ocean cliffs. Match cuts tie the characters’ lives together. Two sequences break with realism: a 2D animated passage and an empty white space where Fedya confronts himself. Mirrors, reflections, and layered images carry the art-house nights of Alan’s composing.

Status — first draft completed and a test shoot done. Now seeking producers to bring the project into full production.