Cradle to Grave
"Cradle To Grave" is a documentary series about the lives of those generations from whom the totalitarian system in Eastern Europe, imposed after 1944, took away property, the connection with the land, the connection with God, the right to choose and the right of … freedom. The lives of these generations were unified by the communist ideology based on Marxist-Leninist postulates. One is urged everywhere to work, in the name and for the benefit of the USSR. Simultaneously funny and sad, we also discover the "spells" of socialist rituals - "Today there is one work vacancy left.. Insidious death took his life from our labor ranks, interrupted his labor activity. The comrade's life was a colorful work song.”
In the six episodes, we examine the main rituals accompanying human life - baptism, marriage, prom, joining the army, funeral. In the last episode, we analyze how these rituals have changed today.
Through the accounts of witnesses who share their stories as protagonists of the era, or real people who worked as ‘ceremonial officials;’ through analysis by experts on that historical time period, as well as men of the church; and through the use of photo and video archives, the documentary series focuses on the deliberate replacement of one kind of ritual with another, and the echo of that process in the life of post-totalitarian Bulgaria.
In the six episodes, we examine the main rituals accompanying human life - baptism, marriage, prom, joining the army, funeral. In the last episode, we analyze how these rituals have changed today.
Through the accounts of witnesses who share their stories as protagonists of the era, or real people who worked as ‘ceremonial officials;’ through analysis by experts on that historical time period, as well as men of the church; and through the use of photo and video archives, the documentary series focuses on the deliberate replacement of one kind of ritual with another, and the echo of that process in the life of post-totalitarian Bulgaria.