4th Sofia-London Cinema Showcase: “The Long Way Home” and “The Stranger from the Banknote – Mara Belcheva”

November 15, 2022, 6:00 p.m. at Ondaatje Theatre, Royal Geographical Society

Registration HERE

The Bulgarian Cultural Institute London is pleased to invite you to the screening of the Bulgarian documentaries “The Long Way Home” and “The Stranger from the Banknote – Mara Belcheva”, part of the 4th Sofia-London Cinema Showcase in the period 13-27 November 2022, live at the Ondaatje Theatre, Royal Geographical Society.

Special guests at the screening: Boryana Puncheva

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

” The Long Way Home”

2022, Bulgaria, 70 min., documentary

Language: Bulgarian with English subtitles

Screenplay: Yuri Dachev, Tatyana Granitova, Boryana Puncheva

Director: Boryana Puncheva

Producers – Cinemascope – Ivan Nichev

As a baby, Ilya was given up by his mother for international adoption in an orphanage in 1993. The scene of separation was captured in an archival film report. 20 years later, the young French citizen comes to Bulgaria to meet his biological mother and his 7 brothers and sisters. This is a cinematic account of these encounters: filled with emotions, with wonder and disbelief, the surprise of a clash of cultures…

The film also raises questions about the fate of Branimira-Brani, John-Petko, Nathalie-Danka and Dozef-Bojan, Maria and Diyan, who were adopted abroad in recent years in front of the film crew and in front of the camera lens. Today, Bulgaria is the only EU member country that donates children for adoption abroad.

Boryana Puncheva was born in Warsaw, Poland. She graduated from film directing with Prof. Yanko Yankov and Prof. Ivan Nichev at VITIZ “Krastyo Sarafov”. Until 1992, he worked for the TV studio “Ekran”, and then as an employee of the Bulgarian National Television. She was the director of the program “UFO Club”. She headed the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw, Poland. Now he is the director of film production at BNT. He is the director and screenwriter of more than 30 documentaries, among which stand out “Genko” (1994), “Girls’ Game” (1991), “Kindergarten” (1981), and “She and the Three” (1983).

“The stranger from the banknote – Mara Belcheva”

2022, Bulgaria, 51 min., documentary

Language: Bulgarian with English subtitles

Screenplay: Yuri Dachev, Tatyana Granitova, Boryana Puncheva

Director: Boryana Puncheva

Cinematographer: Mina Versano

Set designer: Alexandra Angelova

Starring: Mara Belcheva – Vasilena Vincenzo; Pencho Slaveykov – Rusi Chanev

“The stranger from the banknote” is a documentary film about the life of the poet and intellectual Mara Belcheva.

The main roles include the young actress Vasilena Vincenzo and the doyen of the Ivan Vazov National Theater and Bulgarian cinema Rusi Chanev. The director is Boryana Puncheva. The plot uses poems by Mara Belcheva and part of her letters to Pencho Slaveykov. The film was shot in the “Petko and Pencho Slaveykovi” house museum. It is a combination of documentary and acting.

Mara Belcheva is little known to the general public. For most, she is known as Pencho Slaveikov’s favorite. But for her contemporaries in post-liberation Bulgaria, she is a name in literature and culture. And also – an extraordinary beauty and fashion icon. The project aims to illuminate the life of Mara Belcheva.

In the feature episodes, there is no full reconstruction of the environment and costumes, but a faithfully recreated silhouette of the era is relied upon.