VIKTORIA

Boryana does not want a child, certainly not in communist Bulgaria, which she wants to leave for the West as soon as possible. Her daughter Viktoria is born anyway, in 1979, and she is born without a navel. The Party declares the girl “Baby of the Decade”, the state showers her with privileges, a red telephone connects Viktoria directly to the head of state. For nine years she lives as a child of socialism, while her mother watches and says nothing. Then, in 1989, the Eastern Bloc collapses, and with it Viktoria’s special status. In “Viktoria” (Bulgaria, 2014), a Bulgarian-Romanian co-production, Maya Vitkova tells of three generations of women and a love that will not flow.

Vitkova, herself born in Sofia in 1978, has translated her memories of the end of communism into a narrative with surreal interludes and a recurring motif of milk and rain. It premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance in 2014; it was the first Bulgarian film ever to screen there. “Viktoria” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2014.

Shown at the 2014 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2014 · Film Archive