Making Friends with the Idea of a Father
Director and cinematographer Nikolay Stefanov embarks on an emotional and psychological journey to investigate the mysterious death of his father. Almost 30 years later, Nikolay is trying to find the reason why he was killed on the streets of their hometown. The filmmaker is digging into the police archives and the fading memories of his father’s friends — exploring whether the murder was a crime of passion, a theft-gone-wrong, or a random act of violence in the chaos of the early post-Communist 1990s in Bulgaria. At the same time, Nikolay is about to become a father as well — for the third time in his life. While unraveling the details around the murder of his own father and awaiting the birth of his third child, he’s trying to fix a somewhat broken relationship with his 20-year-old elder son and to make the best of the time he has with his quickly growing teenage daughter. Merging archive material, first-person narrative, and real-time shooting, In Circles/Father is a blend between observational, participatory, and poetic documentary cinema that delves into the complexity of family ties and the difficulty of speaking about feelings and buried secrets in our closest circle. The investigation of a true crime turns into a touching and intimate exploration of what it means to be a father in this day and time.
One Inch Eastward
The peaceful ending of the Cold War was a huge achievement, entrancing whole world and making Mikhail Gorbachev one of the most famous people ever. But his grand project for the demilitarisation of international relations was never realised. “ONE INCH EASTWARD”, composed entirely of archives, brings us on an immersive journey back in time to the 1990s; we watch as the fate of humanity is yet again decided by a small group of politicians. The story takes us from the first meeting of George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, still part of the USSR, to Yeltsin’s close relationship with Bill Clinton, and his final humiliation and resignation on December 31st 1999, to be replaced by Vladimir Putin. At the same time, war in Europe, once thought impossible, was back with a vengeance. For over half of the decade the continent was the scene of brutal conflict and genocide, from Croatia to Chechnya, Bosnia to Kosovo, Belgrade to Tbilisi.
Yeltsin warned repeatedly that NATO expansion meant Russian humiliation and called for a security structure that included Russia. Was there a way that this reasonable demand could be reconciled with the equally reasonable desire of former Eastern Bloc countries for security? And how did the US become such a key player in Europe? How did the world’s best chance for demilitarisation end up with deadly wars across the globe?
Yeltsin warned repeatedly that NATO expansion meant Russian humiliation and called for a security structure that included Russia. Was there a way that this reasonable demand could be reconciled with the equally reasonable desire of former Eastern Bloc countries for security? And how did the US become such a key player in Europe? How did the world’s best chance for demilitarisation end up with deadly wars across the globe?