New Bulgarian Voices: the next generation of Balkan cinema

New Bulgarian Voices: the next generation of Balkan cinema

In recent years, new filmmaking voices have burst out of Bulgaria onto the international scene. Directors such as Ralitza Petrova and Eliza Petkova have garnered awards at prestigious festivals with their vivid depictions of the dilemmas facing their rapidly transforming homeland. Klassiki presents a selection of the best new Bulgarian voices, including titles screened and awarded in Berlin, Locarno, and Karlovy Vary.

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New Bulgarian Voices: the next generation of Balkan cinema
  • Fishbone
    Fishbone
    Movie + 1 extra

    Fishbone

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Dragomir Sholev • 2021 • Bulgaria

    When the manager of a campsite on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast discovers yet another dolphin corpse washed up on the shoreline, he decides that enough is enough. Based on real events, Dragomir Sholev’s absurdist environmental parable implicates every s...

  • Viktoria
    Viktoria
    Movie + 2 extras

    Viktoria

    Movie + 2 extras

    Directed by Maya Vitkova • 2014 • Bulgaria

    In 1979, Boryana’s dreams of escaping communist Bulgaria are undone by the miraculous birth, without an umbilical cord, of her daughter Viktoria. Symbolically proclaimed “baby of the decade” by the state, Viktoria lives a pampered life until the eventua...

  • Zhaleika
    Zhaleika
    Movie + 1 extra

    Zhaleika

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Eliza Petkova • 2016 • Bulgaria

    Eliza Petkova’s Berlin-award-winning debut explores the tension between duty and individuality in a picturesque Bulgarian village. Lora (Anna Manolova) is a 17-year-old out of step with the traditions and rhythms of her rural home. When her father dies...

  • The Father
    The Father
    Movie + 1 extra

    The Father

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov • 2019 • Bulgaria

    Husband and wife writer-director duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov conjure up a dramedy tinged with the supernatural in this award-winning Bulgarian gem. Following the death of an elderly woman, her bereaved husband (Ivan ...

  • Godless
    Godless
    Movie + 1 extra

    Godless

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Ralitza Petrova • 2016 • Bulgaria

    Ralitza Petrova’s uncompromising portrait of Bulgarian society’s spiritual decline is one of the most vital films to emerge from the Balkans in the last decade. First-time actor Irena Ivanova is impassively impressive as Gana, a social care nurse who...

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