Bulgaria / Germany 2024, 96 min, Bulgarian, Hebrew & English subtitles
The focus of this extraordinary film, set on a tiny Bulgarian mountain village with a shrinking population, is those who possess the last bits of memory—and some say, the souls of the dead, too: a dog, a cat, a donkey, a horse, and a goat. Did the neighbor punish her alcoholic son by turning him into a donkey, or was she protecting him? And is the cat haunted by a vampire? Captured in expressive, wordless close-ups, Mila, Kirka, Gosho, and the film’s other four-legged subjects are both mundane fixtures of daily life in the village and the secret-bearing protagonists of the myths spun by its human inhabitants. This gentle and endearing cinematic work draws us into an alternative existence where nature and folklore intertwine.
Previous Festivals: IDFA, Tempo IFF
