Synopsis

Mina Mileva’s and Vesela Kazakova’s unusual documentary addresses a chapter of Eastern European history that is widely unknown in our parts of the world: shortly after World War II and the communists’ takeover of Bulgaria, numerous oppositional groups, so-called “Goryani”, formed in the mountainous regions of the country and resisted against the growing totalitarianism. The director duo reviews these events and their dramatic consequences based on the story of a young woman who enters an imaginary dialogue with her late grandfather, an orthodox priest. In the 1920s, he had first sympathised with the idea of socialism, only to turn his back on this ideology due to the brutalities of Stalin. In 1944, he took refuge in the mountains and joined the Goryani. Mileva and Kazakova subsequently examine how this dark chapter of spying and destroying oppositional opinions is still a taboo topic in Bulgaria and how these former oppressors are still shaping the country’s political landscape, even more than 25 years after the turnaround. At the same time, they make it clear that the Marx’s and Engels’ ideology is enjoying a growing popularity again, especially amongst young people in Western Europe.