THE TIED UP BALLOON
O.V in Bulgarian subtitled in Spanish and English
Zhelyazkova was the first woman to direct a feature film in Bulgaria. Her surrealist satire The Tied Up Balloon was scheduled to premiere in Venice in 1967, when the Bulgarian authorities withdrew the film from the programme. The film could not be released in Bulgaria, and Zhelyazkova was removed from directing until 1972. The reason: the content of the film, an allegory of totalitarianism through the (true) story of villagers trying to get rid of an army bombing balloon stranded on their land. An artefact that embodies the fantasies and fears of men who project their own ideas about surveillance, control and freedom onto it, in a display of magical realism that anticipates Kusturica's work. Finally, in 2021, in an act of poetic justice, the restored film was presented at the Sofia Film Festival.
Direction: Binka Zhelyazkova
Script: Yordan Radichkov
Cinematography: Emil Vagenshtain
Music: Simeon Pironkov
Cast: Georgi Kaloyanchev, Grigor Vachkov, Ivan Bratanov, Georgi Georgiev-Getz
INTO ANOTHER HISTORY OF EUROPEAN CINEMA
History, we know, is neither neutral nor incontestable: depending on who tells it and how. When it comes to the history of European cinema, it is increasingly necessary to re-evaluate the dominant canon that guides it, bringing to the forefront works both remarkable and often undervalued. For this reason, a new space has been launched to offer a new way of contemplating the continent's film legacy each year, entitled "Into Another History of European Cinema". The section is set up as a forum for reflection and (re)discovery, paying significant attention to pioneering works of feminism, class consciousness and the new types of cinema that have shaken the world since the sixties (some of them censored or attacked by the establishment), as well as to little-known works by key filmmakers. Eight films that illuminate and reveal another narrative of history will be shown for the first time in Spain in their recently restored copies, opening the debate on archiving works, and the role of festivals and film libraries in the reconsideration of the past.