The Silent Story of My Family
On New Year’s Eve 1972 a young man is committing suicide. The family of a Bulgarian diplomat has just come back from Prague after experiencing the dramatic events of 1968. My family.
My brother’s death was the symbolic death of my family. My father got completely crushed by pain and guilt. His career was ruined. My mother sank into silence. I fled into art, far away from the memories. Now, 40 years later, I am looking for an open dialogue with mum. I will find out whether my brother’s suicide was a personal drama or a political act.
On New Year’s Eve I went to my mother’s place in Plovdiv to commemorate 40 years from the death of my brother Stilyan. My mother Zlatka is already 87-years-old. She is the last keeper of family memory and secrets. Silent in the past, now she starts talking about her son. Zlatka will explain the ideological differences between father and son and the supposed KGB past of her husband. I shall find out that there are other ‘swallowed’ family secrets, beside the shame of my brother’s suicide, which is likely to be a death not chosen by free will. We both start taking the skeletons of two generations out of the closet. We are going to have the long postponed conversation of guilt and forgiving. The knot of broken family relationships, hunting me in my dreams for 40 years, starts untangling. Shocking facts come out. My family story tells the big story of the small person behind the iron curtain, who dared to challenge the system.
My brother’s death was the symbolic death of my family. My father got completely crushed by pain and guilt. His career was ruined. My mother sank into silence. I fled into art, far away from the memories. Now, 40 years later, I am looking for an open dialogue with mum. I will find out whether my brother’s suicide was a personal drama or a political act.
On New Year’s Eve I went to my mother’s place in Plovdiv to commemorate 40 years from the death of my brother Stilyan. My mother Zlatka is already 87-years-old. She is the last keeper of family memory and secrets. Silent in the past, now she starts talking about her son. Zlatka will explain the ideological differences between father and son and the supposed KGB past of her husband. I shall find out that there are other ‘swallowed’ family secrets, beside the shame of my brother’s suicide, which is likely to be a death not chosen by free will. We both start taking the skeletons of two generations out of the closet. We are going to have the long postponed conversation of guilt and forgiving. The knot of broken family relationships, hunting me in my dreams for 40 years, starts untangling. Shocking facts come out. My family story tells the big story of the small person behind the iron curtain, who dared to challenge the system.