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Bulgarian Short Program 2023

Chergi Weavers

Director: Elena Stoycheva
Country: Bulgaria

A young designer arrives in a small Bulgarian village, where most inhabitants left are elderly women. She convinces the grannies to weave a new model of a traditional carpet-runner, called “chergi”. But as they start to assemble an old weaving loom, they find out that parts are missing. Now the women have to restore old knowledge and the missing links between themselves.

Aşk

Director: Vladimir Andonov
Country: Bulgaria

Jemal is a musician and saz player. He becomes seriously ill and doctors say he has a few months to live. His wife Barika began studying remedies and folk medicine, instead of waiting for death to come.

Benevolence

Director: Vladimir Andonov
Country: Bulgaria

Ghalib is a descendant of musicians from an Alevi village. When the last dede in the community dies, the villagers choose him as their religious leader, but he refuses because is still young. However, fate seemed to have something else in store for him.

Inherited Crafts

Director: Osman Mehmedov Yuseinov
Country: Bulgaria

“Inherited Crafts” gathers together portraits of craftspeople in Stolipinovo – a large, racially segregated urban district in Bulgaria. The film shows a cross-section of a community: young, old, modern, traditional – all with something in common, the desire to live and work in a dignified way, through hand-worked crafts. People in the film are both fragile and powerful in their raw honesty against the backdrop of increasingly precarious conditions of labor. “Inherited Crafts” carries a self-reflective style, being made by Osman Yuseinov, himself a craftsman, a master jeweller, working and living in Stolipinovo.

Elbetitsa - Mysticism and Wonder

Director: Boyana Topchiyska
Country: Bulgaria

Elbetitsa is an ancient symbol that has been a central element of Bulgarian culture and history for thousands of years.

Horo between Two Shores

Director: Ekaterina Minkova
Country: Bulgaria

At the heart of the project “Horo between two shores” are little-known and already fading rituals in the Vlach villages in Northwestern Bulgaria and Serbia, related to the funeral and memorial tradition. The rites here provoke the senses with impactful juxtapositions of the borderline theme - life and death. A topic constantly opens beyond specific regional practices. The film focuses on the lives and personal stories of several people on both sides of the border who attended their own commemoration, as dictated by local tradition. The culmination is the chorus of the dead, which is still performed in Bulgaria and Serbia on the first day of Easter in every Wallachian village. They dance with the portraits of deceased loved ones and give away red eggs, treats, and towels. And finally, everyone joins in the dance for the living. Through the stories of the local people, we will look into some ideas about the possible connections between the living and the dead. How and can one soften one’s own fear of death, what is important to accomplish in one’s life, and if there is a way to weaken the pain of separation?

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