Three Stories from Dimitrovgrad
14 min., (digitized 16 mm film), 2026
"Stories from Dimitrovgrad" is a three-part film project made with local, non‑professional filmmakers in Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria, based on the archive of Kinoklub 57; it arose through research, participatory workshops, and collaborative writing and shooting. The film is the result of Collective Urban Visions of Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria: An Art‑Based Research into Collaborative Artistic Filmmaking, part of the INTRA programme of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
The format — a silent film on 16 mm black‑and‑white stock — draws on the origins of cinema to address recurring social problems in a reduced, timeless visual language. The return to analogue, silent cinema emphasizes continuities in human conflict and sharpens attention to gesture, rhythm, and collective memory.
The film comprises three short films — Challenge, Gift, and Strudel — which depict everyday situations and encounters in Dimitrovgrad. The material highlights grain and physicality. Thematically it concerns closeness and healing, as well as the significance of "Polatsch" as a fundamental resource of social cohesion.
"In Challenge, the abandoned amphitheatre provides the backdrop for an impossible encounter, with two young people from two completely different worlds trying to connect yet without getting too close. The final encounter leaves room for interpretation: is it an attempt at communication? A suspended form of peace between two solitudes? Gift explores the theme of giving, suspicion and reciprocity. A man buys copious groceries for a festive dinner with his wife and son, and while doing so, helps a stranger buy a bottle of vodka. Shortly afterwards, he feels followed by that man on the street and prepares himself, perhaps, for the worst – but the confrontation resolves in an unexpected gesture: the man returns his kindness by handing him an apple. The third story, Strudel, delicately recounts a young man’s brief return to visit his mother. The story unfolds through silent gestures and affectionate glances, culminating in a departure at dawn that carries with it all the nostalgia and fragility of family relationships.
In the three stories that make up the film, the ‘apple’ object recurs as a visual and symbolic element, delicately directing the plots of proximity and distance that intertwine between the characters and their actions, thus emerging as a silent bridge between people." - Katia Anguelova
cast:
Fedir Aleksandrovich
Adelina Gerginova
Antoaneta Stancheva
Michele Giulini
Brando Giulini
Jago Rosatti