ZHALEIKA

ZHALEIKA, 2016

Bulgaria, Germany | DCP, Color, 92’ | Bulgarian

Director:Eliza Petkova

Cast:Anna Manolova, Snezhina Petrova, Mihail Stoyanov

Deemed worthy of Special Mention in the Generation section of Berlinale, Zhaleika is Eliza Petkova’s debut feature film based on the coming-of-age of Lora, a young girl who lives in a mountain village in Bulgaria. Lora cares for neither the criticisms of the village elders nor her parents who constantly scold her for one reason or another. Until, one day, when her father suddenly dies… It is no longer so easy for her to ignore the pressure of her family and the village elders. In the film that takes hold of the audience with its documentary-like visual expression, we witness Lora grow into a young woman through the eye-catching beauty of rural Bulgaria.