4th London / Sofia Cinema Showcase: screening of the feature film “Irina”

November 26, 2022, 8 p.m. at the Ondaatje Theatre, Royal Geographical Society

Registration for the event HERE

The Bulgarian Cultural Institute London is pleased to invite you to the screening of the feature film “Irina”, part of the 4th London / Sofia Cinema Showcase, in the period 13-27 November 2022, live at the Ondaatje Theatre, Royal Geographical Society.

Special guests at the screening: Nadejda Koseva and Stefan Kitanov

Moderated by Phillip Bergson, BBC Broadcaster and Member of the UK Critics’ Circle

After the film screening there will be a discussion with the special guests

“Irina”

2018, Bulgaria, 96 min., drama

Directed by: Nadejda Koseva

Written by: Nadejda Koseva, Svetoslav Ovcharov, Bojan Vuletic

Produced by: Stefan Kitanov

Cinematography: Kiril Prodanov

Editing: Nina Altaparmakova

Production Design: Ivelina Mineva

Costume Design: Viktor Andreev

Make-Up & Hair: Petya Simeonova

Original Score: Petar Dundakov

Sound: Momchil Bozhkov

Cast: Martina Apostolova (Irina), Hristo Ushev (Sasho), Kasiel Noah Asher (Lyudmila), Irini Jambonas (Eva), Alexander Kossev (Bozhidar), Krassimir Dokov (Varlaam)

Irina works as a waitress in a small town in Bulgaria. On the day she was fired, her husband had a serious accident. Irina’s family falls into poverty. To make ends meet, she becomes a surrogate mother. Daily struggles, despair and the seed of life that grows in her belly, raise a new wave in this hard and crappy life. Irina slowly begins to understand what it means to love and forgive.

“Carrying a child and giving birth changes every woman’s life. Mine too. Irina is a very personal and very female (but not feminist) story about reinventing the world through new life.

Irina is a film about forgiveness. A story that raises moral and ethical questions, but at the same time takes us to a place where the answers to them lose their meaning. A place where forgiveness is the only way to overcome despair, pain and anger. The only way to survive.”

Born in 1974 in Sofia, Bulgaria, Nadejda Koseva graduated from the Bulgarian National Film and Television Academy. She directed the short THE RITUAL, part of the onmibus film LOST AND FOUND which premiered at the Forum section of the Berlinale 2005. Nadejda Koseva’s next short fiction film OMELETTE won a Special Mention at Sundance 2009, among other awards world-wide. Her latest short film TAKE TWO travelled around the world after winning a Special Mention at its premiere in Sarajevo 2011.