''Lost in Karastan'' is a 2014 black comedy film directed by

Ben Hopkins Ben Hopkins (born 1969) is a British film director, screenwriter and novelist. His film ''Simon Magus'' entered the 49th Berlin International Film Festival competition in 1999. His 2008 film, '' The Market: A Tale of Trade'' ( tr, Pazar: Bir T ...

Plot

''Lost in Karastan'' is a gentle black comedy about a confused British director, Emil, who is hired to direct a production in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

region. The country, Autonomous Republic of Karastan, is led by an eccentric corrupt but benign dictator. There Emil embarks on one of the wildest journeys of his already diverse career.

Cast

* Matthew Macfadyen as Emil Forester *

MyAnna Buring MyAnna Buring (; born 22 September 1979 as Anna Margaretha My Rantapää) is a Swedish actress, known for her roles in ''The Descent'', ''Kill List'', '' The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', ''Ripper Street'', ''The Witc ...

as Chulpan *

Noah Taylor Noah George Taylor (born 4 September 1969) is a British-born Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as teenage David Helfgott in '' Shine'', Locke in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', Darby Sabini in the BBC One series ''Peaky Bl ...

as Xan Butler *

Ali Cook Ali Cook (also credited as Alistair Cook) is an English magician, actor and comedian originating from Yorkshire. Cook played Sgt. Paul McMellon in the feature film ''Kajaki'', which won the ''Producer of The Year Award'' at the 2015 British I ...

as Daniel *

Ümit Ünal Ümit Ünal (born 14 April 1965 in Tire, İzmir), is a film director, screenwriter and author. He is the scriptwriter for eight Turkish feature films including ''Teyzem (My Aunt)'' (1986), ''Hayallerim, Askim ve Sen (My Dreams, My Love and You)' ...

as Saro *

Richard Van Weyden Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

as President Abashiliev * Vedat Erincin as Mountain Man * María Fernández Ache as Marian * Amiran Katchibaia as Agdur * Leo Antadze as Igor *

Lasha Ramishvili Lasha, meaning ''fissure'' is a place apparently east of the Dead Sea (). It was later known as Callirrhoe Callirrhoe (, grc, Καλλιρρόη; also Callirhoe) may refer to: * Callirhoe (mythology), several figures in Greek mythology, includi ...

as Ruslan * Dato Velijanashvili as Shadow

Release

Lost in Karastan premiered in the UK as the opening film of the London Comedy Film Festival (LOCO) on 22 January 2015.

Awards

Filmfest Hamburg FILMFEST HAMBURG is an international film festival in Hamburg, the third-largest of its kind in Germany (after Berlin and Munich). It shows national and international feature and documentary films in eleven sections. The range of the program stret ...

, the film won the 'Hamburg Producers Awards' for the best 'European Cinema Co-production' and 'German-European Cinematic Production', presented to Daniel Zuta and Vladimer Katcharava. Ben Hopkins was nominated for the 'Grand Prix des Amériques' award at the Montréal World Film Festival in 2014.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

Internet Movie Database

LOCO

BFI

Ben Hopkins Interview
(in German) 2014 films English-language German films English-language French films English-language films from Georgia (country) 2014 black comedy films German black comedy films British black comedy films Films set in Asia French black comedy films 2010s Russian-language films 2010s Turkish-language films Comedy films from Georgia (country) 2010s English-language films 2014 multilingual films British multilingual films French multilingual films German multilingual films Multilingual films from Georgia (country) 2010s British films 2010s French films 2010s German films