It's ok to eat fish, because they don't have any feelings
SYNOPSIS
Program Information
Stills
Critical text
A girl swimming in a pool. A child smiling. A pot of boiling water. A hanging sheet fluttering in the wind. An encounter between the same girl and a man. Without words (and almost without sound), Stefan Koutzev constructs a portrait from fragments: shots that could be black-and-white photographs and yet feel imbued with movement. A swell that comes only from within.DANIELA URZOLA
BIOGRAPHY
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Stefan Koutzev is a Bulgarian writer-director who grew up in Germany, currently working and living in Cologne. He focuses on narrative storytelling at the intersection of screenwriting, fiction and documentary practices, as well as the production of experimental films. Graduating at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, he visited film studies at the European Film College Denmark, HFBK Hamburg and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His shorts Restbestand (Unsold Copies, 2025), Hauspausen (Houseprints, 2024) and Schwärmen (Swarm, 2020) have screened at international film festivals such as DOK Leipzig, Rencontres Internationales Paris Berlin, Beijing International Short Film Festival, Stockholm IFF and more. In 2026 his debut fiction feature "Why hasn't everything disappeared yet" premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Currently, he's in development of his second feature film Schweres Licht (Heavy Light), which was selected for Sofia Meetings 2026 and for further development in the Script Station at Sarajevo Talents 2026.
writer, director and editor: Stefan Koutzev
cast: Tina Daurova, Chris von Rautenkranz, Lujza Frida Durkacova, Sisi Durkacova
camera: Enes Yurdaün, Stefan Koutzev
sound recordist: Asma Ben Slama
sound design/ mix: Sebastian Dieterle, Florestan Tschammer
colour grading: Semih Lakerta
