With his 2003 film Most, American actor-turned-director Bobby Garabedian travelled to the Czech Republic to shoot and came back with an Oscar-nominated short - and Australian executive producer Alexandra Bekiaris was along for the ride.

"I started East Wind Films, and then met Cathleen Cassagne," Alexandra Bekiaris, executive producer of Most [translated as Bridge from Czech] explains. "We had no experience in the industry and honestly knew no one, but we became friends and packed our bags - like millions of people have done - and went to LA. We visited people, but eventually got really disappointed because there were no leads."

Now back in Australia to tell her tale, Alexandra recalls the stroke of fate that saw her become involved in Most. "As Cathleen and I walked outside to the car defeated, someone came running behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and said 'I think I am another part of the puzzle you have been searching for. I am a director.' And that's how I met Bobby Garabedian."

That serendipitous meeting would eventually bring about Most, a brutal, lyrical morality tale staged around a draw bridge in Prague and explicitly concerned with themes as massive as love, faith and death.

"We sat down the following day and talked over lunch," Bekiaris continues. "It was going to be a picture of people in society hurting, in relationships, coming to the end in order to find a new life. The train is symbolic of all of this and we began bridging the gap to touch hearts afresh."

Although suitably ambitious and professional, discussions about touching hearts and bridging gaps are more the province of audiences and critics. For an executive producer like Bekiaris, shooting days, budgets and international distribution were the name of the game.

"First it was going to be America, then Australia, then Italy, and I think France came up too," she laughs with regards to the location of the shoot. "But it's cheaper to make movies in the Czech Republic, and we worked with great production companies at such a low cost. Plus, we could get a steam train and a bridge. We could do things that we couldn't in the US. There's such beauty that had to be captured on film: the pavement was made out of cobblestones, which were so many years old, and there were buildings with little rivers in between them and white swans making their way down the river. It was so beautiful."

All was not beautiful for the production, however, as Most evolved - as films tend to do - over the course of its production life. "It went through so much, she remembers. "We had the bridge break down in the middle of filming; floods hit the editing studio in Prague; our trailers caught fire; [actor] John Lavachielli had his luggage go missing. It was meant to have been $30,000 for a 12 minute short film, but it ended up being 33 minutes, costing us about $1,000,000. The whole time it felt like we were on the Titanic, about to sink! We had people give their hearts to see the film done."

Those generous contributions were, of course, rewarded by a triumphant Oscar nomination in 2004 and a warm reception wherever the film was shown. "Out of 40,000 short films submitted for the Oscars, we were amongst the top five nominated," Bekiaris says fondly. "I felt so honoured to be a part of it. until I tripped on the red carpet on the way into the arena."

Now four years on, Bekiaris is philosophical about the future of the film, looking for an Australian distribution avenue but also knowing Most will find its own way.

"The story of Most can't be taken away, only added to," she says. "It leaves you questioning, because there are so many possibilities to the story itself. We are all on carriages going somewhere and we'll always be going somewhere. Whether you are a Hollywood star or a homeless person in the gutter, you are always looking for your next stop, and this story is symbolic of many things.

"We see Most as a modern day parable about sacrifices that take place in our lives that leave us not knowing what to do. So often, people are brave enough to stand for something, brave enough to lay down their lives for someone," she claims.

For more on Most and Alexandra, check out www.eastwindfilms.net.au and www.mostthemovie.net.au