Films by Martichka Bozhilova

Bulgaria, Germany 2022, 114 min
by Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva

A provincial hospital serving a town with a population of 50,000 in western Bulgaria: here in the Covid ward the eccentric Dr Popov and his team are fighting to save lives. Award-winning director Ilian Metev (Sofia’s Last Ambulance), together with Ivan Chertov and Zlatina Teneva, naturally isn’t aiming to depict human suffering. Their survey of an ordinary Bulgarian hospital environment seeks instead to draw our attention to the country’s obsolete and underfunded healthcare system and, via the various situations they depict, to remind us of our attitudes at the time when faced with an unknown threat. However, the bleak proceedings are offset by cheery interviews conducted in the hospital’s rooms and corridors which show that, even when looking death in the face, people still have a sense of humour. (56 Karlovy Vary IFF, Martin Horyna)With: Dr. Evgeni Popov, Evelina Arsova, Maya Filipova, Daniel Kadifkin, Emil Stoyanov-Chemata

2018, 90 min
by Boris Missirkov, Georgi Bogdanov

PALACE FOR THE PEOPLE tells the stories of the most emblematic four buildings of socialist times - highly representative for the epoch and witnessing the historical turbulence in Eastern Europe in the second half of the XX century. The National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Moscow State University, Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Palace of Serbia in Belgrade, Palace of the Republic in Berlin are unique architectural creatures made with a lot of courage and a bit of lunacy to remind the people there was an ultimate power and brighter future. Each one is the tallest, the largest, has the biggest clock on Earth, or the most advanced technology of its time. They were the most grandiose enterprises in a time when collective good was the major state policy. Now that socialism is over it's time to go back and reveal their hidden secrets. The film takes a snapshot of the palaces today, as seen through the eyes of people related to them - their architects, former and current directors, ordinary people who worked in them.Episode 1: Moscow: Moscow State UniversityEpisode 2: Belgrade: Palace of SerbiaEpisode 3: Sofia: National Palace of CultureEpisode 4: Bucharest: Palace of the Parliament

Germany 2012, 92 min
by Stefan Schwietert

The film tells a great love story - the story of Marcel and Catherine Cellier and their lifelong dedication to the music of Eastern Europe. Amidst the cold war the couple transcends all borders to collect and document sounds and harmonies never been heard before in the West. In numerous radio programmes and through selling millions of records Marcel Cellier spreads the music among an international audience, who falls in love with it immediately. He paves the way to fame for musicians like the Rumanian pan flute player Gheorghe Zamfir and the legendary Bulgarian women’s choir ‘Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares’. Following the traces of the Cellier family the film travels to Eastern Europe to find the protagonists of those days and to resurrect the richness of their music.