Martichka Bozhilova

Georgi and the Butterflies

Georgi and the Butterflies tells the story of a man and his dream. This man is Dr Georgi Lulchev, a psychiatrist, neurologist, Chinese medicine man, administrator, amateur chef, entrepreneur and Director of the Home for Psychologically Disabled Men. His dream is to organise a farm in the yard of the home, where the patients can raise snails, ostriches and pheasants, produce silk fibres and soybean food. This is a story full of optimism, snails, ostriches, silk, charity, the Eastern Orthodox Church, soybean food, schizophrenics, oligophrenics, psychopaths, Korean investors, Western hunters, misery, acupuncture and compassion. Compassion, business, butterflies.

The Summer Help

At their university in Eastern Europe, they are future bankers, journalists and politicians. In America, they are just “the help.” From Martha’s Vineyard to Myrtle Beach, thousands of international students descend upon summer resorts and tourist towns in the U.S. to clean hotel rooms, wash dishes and make pizza for Americans on vacation. Who are these students and what will they find when they get to the country of their dreams? Why do they work at two, three and sometimes four jobs for minimum wage? Is America what they thought it would be? In this documentary, we meet students from Bulgaria who dream about going to America to do the jobs that most American teenagers don’t want to do. What will they find when they get there and how will it change them? At a time of foreclosures and unemployment in the U.S., The Summer Help reminds us that America still represents hope and fulfills dreams for young people from around the world… even if it’s just for one summer.

Strandzha

The debut documentary by Bulgarian-born German resident and renowned photographer Pepa Hristova is set in the Strandzha mountains, the natural border between Bulgaria and Turkey. In that sparsely populated land and in one of the last primeval European forests is a crossroads between ancient rituals, nationalism, migration and anarchy, as the bleak past blends with modern-day threats in a terra incognita for the West.

Putin's Playground

For years, Russia has been trying to rebuild its empire. The hybrid war doctrine introduced by Putin in 2013 assumes attacking Western countries without declaring war. The invasion of Ukraine made us lose our sense of security. A pair of documentary filmmakers from Poland set off on a journey to look for answers to the question about the threats that may face Central and Eastern Europe.

Working Class Goes to Hell

The factory that once employed the entire town and surrounding villages has been closed down due to a questionable privatization process, coinciding with a tragic incident where a group of its workers perished in a deliberately set fire. The remaining workers, devastated by the loss of their loved ones and the subsequent corrupt sale of the factory, initiate protests, but their efforts seem futile, yielding no concrete results. Feeling abandoned not only by the authorities but also by their cherished church, they find themselves seeking solace and answers in the supernatural.

Here I Am, Again

Anyone else in his place would have given up, but not him. Just a month after narrowly surviving being hit by a car, high-altitude mountaineer and research-zoologist Boyan Petrov starts his recovery and long preparation to continue his dream: climbing all the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. Without supplementary oxygen and 3 times cancer survivor, he has climbed all 10 of the 14 eight-thousanders. Now it's time for the world's giant - Everest. For this purpose, Boyan starts his journey by "warming-up" with the lowest peak among them - the so-called "dwarf" Shishapangma. Number 11 on his bucket list. An unexpected twist of fate leads to his disappearance a few meters under the peak which activates an unprecedented interstate rescue mission and helicopter searches between the countries of Nepal, China, and Bulgaria.

The Cars We Drove into Capitalism

A cinematic, character-driven insight to what it meant to produce and to own a car in communist times: the Socialist propaganda dreams and the hard reality of living that dream. The freedom that these slow and clumsy vehicles were giving to their owners; the cars as an instrument in the Cold War battle; legends and homemade tune-ups as an attempt to stand at least a little bit off the crowd.

Our Quiet Place

Elitza Gueorguieva films the making of the novel that her Belarusian alter-ego Aliona begins about her father, a maritime adventurer, physicist and dreamer, who disappeared off the Turkish coast in 1995.

Women's Day

Astounding stories by women born in the USSR, pioneers and survivors, that reveal their heroic experiences from the time of the Revolution in 1917 to the present day through personal testimonies and intimate conversations with remarkable women and unseen archive footage. It opens a door to their inner thoughts, feelings, fears and hopes. Their experience foreshadowed that of women of today and yet their fate is also the story of their century.

The Sweetest Thing

Europe was still split in two — the Berlin wall separated families, friends, relatives. The wall, built by people to divide people, was more than a physical barrier. East of it there was a regime restricting freedom of speech, access to education and information and career opportunities. It made simple things, such as the movie you are now going to watch, unthinkable. Those times are gone, but must not be forgotten.

Palace for the People

The life and death of socialist architectural monsters. An epic fairy-tale in five chapters.

The Last Black Sea Pirates

This is a modern pirate story complete with a captain, a mutinous crew of outlaws, a princess, her wedding dress and untold riches. Only one thing is missing: the ship. According to legend, Vulchan, a 19th-century gypsy pirate, attacked three convoys laden with gold. He robbed them, sunk them and hid his treasure by the coast. Fast forward to present day. Captain Jack, an ex-con himself, leads a motley bunch of homeless outcasts—alcoholics and petty criminals—in a search for the hidden loot. But their hopes of riches and glory are threatened when the brother of the Bulgarian Prime Minister announces plans to build a new mega tourist resort by the Black Sea.

Rules of Single Life

A Finnish documentary follows four young men who have one year to find new love in Helsinki.

Corridor No. 8

The road linking Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania corresponds to the site of a huge EU infrastructure project called Corridor #8. Corridor No. 8+ is a mosaic film combining fragments from the everyday lives of the characters who live along this non-existent Balkan road. MUBI