“Amazing” cannot even begin to describe sophomore Dena Popova’s experience at a recent screenwriting workshop in France.

Popova, a rhetoric and film studies major and native of Bulgaria, was invited to attend the workshop after her screenplay, “In the End, It Rains,” was one of 25 selected in an annual European short film-writing contest sponsored by Nisi Masa, a French film organization.

Two screenplays are chosen from each country, and Popova’s was one of two selected from Bulgaria from an applicant pool of over 70. She was also the youngest participant selected.
The theme for this years contest was a circle.

“I wanted to make this combination of something very traditional and related to folklore and something very modern and up to date,” said Popova of her inspiration for “In the End, It Rains.”

“I played with a very fascinating Bulgarian tradition, Vaydudulka, of old women making a prayer for rain and the dance they do as part of the prayer. The story of the film is about these two strangers, a boy and a girl, who are traveling on a little bus in the countryside. The bus breaks down and they have to get out and they happen to be in this little village where the women are preparing for the rain prayer. The women need the girl for the prayer and dance.”

Popova wrote the screenplay last summer and was notified of the final decision last October. From this time on until she left for France, Popova was busy translating the screenplay from Bulgarian into English and reworking and improving it.

“At the beginning [of the workshop] I thought I had a finished story, but I found out that I had many more things to add,” said Popova with a laugh.

Popova spent her first week in Moulin d’Ande, France at the Centre des Ecritures Cinematographiques, a residence for screenwriters. Under the guidance of well-known European directors, the participants discussed each other’s screenplays and continually revised and improved them.

The second week was at an international short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France. There they pitched their screenplays to producers.

Popova was introduced to a Bulgarian director who was so intrigued by her screenplay that he offered to help Popova direct and produce it into film. “In the End, It Rains” will go into production this summer.

It will then go on to show at independent film festivals in Europe. “This is the destiny of a short film. There is no other way to distribute it. Its only fate is to go to a film festival,” said Popova.

“I would like to thank Professor Sickles. He help me so much with the translation and preparing the screenplay for the workshop,” said Popova.