The role of ladies in cinema has been recently turning into a leading subject in the world of the Seventh art. Since 1993 the Milan-held Sguardi Altrove film festival has been drawing the attention of the audience at movies authored by ladies. Its 25th edition is taking place in the period March 11th – 18th with Bulgaria being a special guest.

“This year Bulgaria has the pleasure to participate in the event with as many as 6 titles,” says Borislava Chakrinova, an associate with the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Rome. “The festival’s artistic director Patrizia Rappazzo was the one who got in touch with us. She wanted special focus to be placed on Bulgarian cinema, created by women, which is still relatively unknown in Italy. We present four Bulgarian movies: Bezbog /Godless/ of Ralitsa Petrova; Voevoda /Chieftain/ of Zornitsa Sofia; the Divorce Albanian Style documentary of Adela Peeva and Iglika Trifonova’s The Prosecutor, the Defender, the Father and His Son – the latter being a guest production in Milan for the second time. It was first shown last year during the initial edition of the Festival of Bulgarian Cinema in Milan. We are really happy that the organizers decided to screen the Bulgarian – German co-production Western and the Posoki /Directions/ movie of Stefan Komandarev.”

For 25 years of existence the festival has been well established and the Bulgarian cinema sees some really interesting company. “The major program consists of many of the movies that have won the most prestigious festivals over the past year. So, the program is really interesting and entirely focusing on ladies and their place in cinema: ladies directors and the female themes in the movies. One can definitely see a lot and that is why I am happy for Bulgaria being a special guest,” Chakrinova goes on to say.

There was a special round table devoted to cinema in Eastern Europe at the Milan EP Office. Its Head Bruno Marasà and Bulgaria’s Consul General Rosen Rufev expressed their content that the 6-month-long Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU provided new opportunities for meetings with Bulgarian culture, still not that well known in Italy. Director Adela Peeva presented the website, exclusively created for her research of the role of women in Bulgarian cinema – www.jeni-bg-kino.com. It presents detailed information on the work of 29 Bulgarian lady–directors. Screenwriter and director Zornitsa Sofia and Teodora Filipova – cartoonist and lecturer at Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan shared their stories and experience. Movie critic Nicola Falcinella mapped out some of the most significant festival successes of Bulgarian movies over the past years, pointing to the growing international interest in our cinema-making, where ladies have always had their significant position.

As far as the curiosity of Italy’s audience to Bulgarian movies is concerned, Borislava Chakrinova further explained:

“This enhanced interest in latter years is not only in Italy, it is on a European scale. I am very happy that the Bulgarian movies are not only presented, but have started to win awards from prestigious movie festivals as well. For instance, Godless of director and screenwriter Ralitsa Petrova won the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno festival 69th edition in Switzerland. This means a lot. Any success of this kind has its inevitable impact on the Bulgarian fans and their interest internationally. At the same time the audience is curious about discovering what has been going on in this country over the past years and we have the chance to provide that info.”

Commenting the reason for Bulgaria’s exclusive guest appearance this year, Mrs. Chakrinova says that in her opinion it is due to the expanding interest towards Eastern European countries: “They have that tradition to accentuate on different countries through different years. This year there is this coincidence with the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of EU, but there is more to that. The invitation is due to this interest and will for some broadening vision on countries which have remained so far relatively unknown,” said for Radio Bulgaria Borislava Chakrinova from the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Rome.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev

Photo provided by BCI – Rome