Life from Life

A documentary about lamentation songs of Bulgarian funeral rites.

Every year in June, the small Bulgarian village of Balgari celebrates St Constantine with a special ritual. Initiated ‘nestinari’ go into a music-induced trance and dance on bonfires in a display of religious passion.

Wolves divide and fascinate us. 150 years after they were driven to extinction in Central Europe, they are returning slowly but inexorably. Are they dangerous to humans? Is it possible to coexist? Using Switzerland as a point of departure, where wolves have returned in the very recent past, this documentary sheds light on the wolf situation in Austria, eastern Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and even Minnesota, where freely roaming packs of wolves are more common sight.

Second Chance Champions delves into the world of organ and tissue donation through an international event for transplant athletes. Emotions run high as competitors split their medals with those who have given them a second chance at life.

"Natural Film" is a delicate documentary portrait of the writer Georgi Gospodinov, inspired by his cult classic Natural Novel. Unfolding through a series of beginnings, the film is a cinematic experiment centered both on the author—the first Bulgarian winner of the International Booker Prize—and on the man searching for a path and meaning through memory, melancholy, and the poetry of everyday life.

The story of six young people addicted to heroin in Sofia, Bulgaria.

A documentary focused on the transitional years from the totalitarian regime to democracy in Bulgaria. A thorough interpretation of the period as a reference note to world-famous French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of ‘simulation’. The film’s title is an ironic extension of Sigmund Freud’s famous quote, "America is a mistake, admittedly a gigantic mistake", which implies the Austrian scientist’s disappointment from empty American life in which money is the utmost value.

After twenty-five years spent in France, I return to Bulgaria, camera in hand, with a vertiginous suspicion: what if my family had collaborated with the political police of the communist regime? And what if they were part of the "red trash" that the demonstrators on the street want to see disappear? I decide to investigate and to film, constantly, ready for anything. My adventure transforms itself into a tragic comic odyssey; a film that combines espionage with family.

We follow the story of a Bulgarian elderly couple living in a stagnant small village called Balabansko. Taking care of the family house passed down the generations has been their life’s work. What does their future hold and why can’t they let go of the past?

Paintings, performances, experiments, electronic music sounding in the spaces of two old houses in a small Italian town, heated conversations about contemporary art, touching meetings with the closest people and places in Bulgaria after 50 years of separation. "Flying with Fins" is a film about the constant search for meaning in art and life. Alzek Misheff, artist - rebel and experimenter, leads us in this philosophical and aesthetic journey through time, space and ideas.

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

A portrait of a seemingly ordinary house - one that holds cherished memories while also bearing the burden of abandonment and neglect. Revisiting my grandparents’ house, I find myself exploring the intersection of home, nostalgia, and the passage of time while trying to grasp the essence of a place where time seems to stand still.

A documentary about the life and music of the great Bulgarian folk-jazz clarinet player Ivo Papasov - Ibryama.

Bettina and Frank are from Saxony, without a job and are on vacation for the first time. They go to the sunny beach, where the unemployed Bulgarians Tenscho and Radka open a boutique to earn money with the Germans.

Staged behind the scenes look at the McWalter movie.

A documentary that examines the issue of forced live organ harvesting from Chinese prisoners of conscience, and the response - or lack of it - around the world. It's happened before: governments killing their own citizens for their political or spiritual beliefs. But it’s never happened like this. It’s happened so often that the world doesn’t always pay attention.

This is a short and low-budget documentary film about the life of the legendary Bulgarian revolutionary - Delyo Voyvoda. This film is available to watch in the museum named after him located in Zlatograd, Bulgaria.

GIFTED: The Docuseries celebrates the heroism of organ, eye, and tissue donation by taking viewers on it's full dramatic sweep: from the tragedies that claim these hero donors, into the rooms where the gut-wrenching decisions are made, down the hospital halls for the “honor walk,” inside the airplanes fighting against time, and ultimately into the heart and joy of new life. You will see how one life can save eight, and why 20 people don’t have to die today. GIFTED will measurably save lives by celebrating the heroism of organ, eye, and tissue donation – showing how YOU can so simply make a difference. Featuring donor heroes Heather Miller, Maissa Abdallah, and Maddie Grobmeier.

This film was made on the occasion of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Ilinden (St. Ellias Day) Rebellion. This panoramic film depicts the most significant historic figures and places situated in the Aegian, Pirin and Vardar regions.

What lies beyond the art of giving and receiving? Ellie, a liberal Democrat and kind-hearted masseuse, decides she wants to share the gift of life with a stranger. Five hundred miles away, Kathy loses hope of receiving a transplant until she hears from Ellie. Over the course of four years, both women face unexpected challenges.