Agitprop

The life and death of socialist architectural monsters. An epic fairy-tale in five chapters.

Several very different characters – a pioneering physicist, an acclaimed minimalist composer, an intensive care doctor and a crematorium director – each in their own way find a strikingly similar answer to the cliché question: what is the universe made of? According to them, the ultimate source of reality is essentially empty space, which spontaneously manifests what we call matter in a magical display.

Elitza Gueorguieva films the making of the novel that her Belarusian alter-ego Aliona begins about her father, a maritime adventurer, physicist and dreamer, who disappeared off the Turkish coast in 1995.

Audrius Mickevičius puts the horribly disfigured face of his murdered brother at the start of his film. It is almost a meditation about the question whether a final act like murder can be atoned for in a temporal order – and whether the passing of time allows the victim’s family to forgive. Mickevičius uses the example of two lifers (one of them gets married and wants to have children, the other pours his whole passion into an idea of craftsmanship) and a philosopher with prison experience to make that strange state of suspended life comprehensible.

The debut documentary by Bulgarian-born German resident and renowned photographer Pepa Hristova is set in the Strandzha mountains, the natural border between Bulgaria and Turkey. In that sparsely populated land and in one of the last primeval European forests is a crossroads between ancient rituals, nationalism, migration and anarchy, as the bleak past blends with modern-day threats in a terra incognita for the West.

A touching tribute to the distinguished Lithuanian cultural figure Irena Veisaitė. Having survived the Holocaust and lost her loved ones, but refusing to give in to hatred, she chose forgiveness over revenge, dialogue over silence, and love over hatred, becoming an inspiration to many.

A cinematic journey into the heart of the Europe through the life-changing experience of young participants of Erasmus - the most ambitious mobility programme of our times. The film’s characters leave the comfort zone of their country, to prove to themselves that they can survive in a foreign environment, overcoming their fears and adapting to different cultures and mentalities. Set against the current European crisis, fueled by unprecedented youth unemployment and fears about the refugee situation, their journeys offer a bird’s-eye view of a continent in transition, giving a sense of what the future holds.

Funeral director Bobby helps others come to terms with death, yet remains unable to cope with the loss of his father. When Yoana — a fading diva whose reckless driving caused his father’s death — returns to their small town and hires Bobby to arrange her own funeral, he is, in a cruel twist of fate, tasked with safeguarding the dignity of the very person who took everything from him.

The story of a mysterious soda developed by legendary Georgian juicemaker Mitrofan Lagidze on the order of Stalin in the early 1950's. In the so-called lemonade war Lagidze was instructed to create a soft drink better than Coca-Cola.

For years, Russia has been trying to rebuild its empire. The hybrid war doctrine introduced by Putin in 2013 assumes attacking Western countries without declaring war. The invasion of Ukraine made us lose our sense of security. A pair of documentary filmmakers from Poland set off on a journey to look for answers to the question about the threats that may face Central and Eastern Europe.

While a woman makes an omelette, we learn how difficult it is to make ends meet. 7-minute short film which won honorable mention at Sundance 2009. Created at the invitation of Capital Weekly as part of the first BC omnibus film '15' - 15 authors, 15 years, 15 short films.

Philip looks like a man, who has it all: successful career and a beautiful girlfriend. However, he is still taking care of Victor, his sensitive brother, years after the death of their parents. Emma is slightly autistic, fallen out of time. At the night, she creates the model of a mystical garden in the back of her flower shop, where Victor works. Emma lives in spheres completely beyond Philip's reach. Through her garden, Philip realizes that he never felt so real until he met this otherworldly girl, he's falling in love with. His life is transforming - until Victor confesses that he, too, is in love with Emma. Torn between the love for his brother and for Emma, Philip feels the pain of loss for the first time. Under the surface of this contemporary urban drama, there are hidden invisible worlds, where unexpected miracles happen. "Perhaps the most tender Bulgarian film."

Anta, Evy, Lila and Talia were 20 in 2015 and studied at all-female Barnard College in New York. 2015 - 2045: 30 years and 3 films to see how they will shape the world from the inside out, becoming women on a fast changing planet.

Georgi and the Butterflies tells the story of a man and his dream. This man is Dr Georgi Lulchev, a psychiatrist, neurologist, Chinese medicine man, administrator, amateur chef, entrepreneur and Director of the Home for Psychologically Disabled Men. His dream is to organise a farm in the yard of the home, where the patients can raise snails, ostriches and pheasants, produce silk fibres and soybean food. This is a story full of optimism, snails, ostriches, silk, charity, the Eastern Orthodox Church, soybean food, schizophrenics, oligophrenics, psychopaths, Korean investors, Western hunters, misery, acupuncture and compassion. Compassion, business, butterflies.

Together, a filmmaker and her characters venture into a personal research project about intimacy. On the fluid border between reality and fiction, Touch Me Not follows the emotional journeys of Laura, Tómas and Christian, offering a deeply empathic insight into their lives. Craving for intimacy yet also deeply afraid of it, they work to overcome old patterns, defense mechanisms and taboos, to cut the cord and finally be free. Touch Me Not looks at how we can find intimacy in the most unexpected ways, at how to love another without losing ourselves.

Secretary of the most influential Communist Party in the Western world, Enrico Berlinguer challenged the international balance by seeking to bring the Communists to government in Italy and achieve socialism in a democratic country. From 1973, when he escaped an attack by the Bulgarian secret services, to the assassination of his main ally Aldo Moro in 1978, not forgetting his trips to Moscow and the covers of Time: the story of a man who wanted to change the world, but failed.

Love & Engineering is for everyone who has experienced uncertainty, had a crush on someone or been on a date. The film asks what are our so-called “feelings” and can we can control them or not. Challenges of the dating world are approached through the perspective of male engineers: how to encounter people in the real world? The film reveals that falling in love happens in three phases and that charming your date could be just a matter of adept hacking skills!

A fascinating story of science-fiction films that tried to predict the future of a socialist country that didn’t live long enough to see it.

What Swiss director Stefan Schweitert did for accordion music and for yodeling (Accordion Tribe, Cinequest, 2005; Echoes of Home, Cinequest 2008) he now does for traditional Balkan music. This wonderful film is also a love story – and a door into a world of musical wonders.

Astounding stories by women born in the USSR, pioneers and survivors, that reveal their heroic experiences from the time of the Revolution in 1917 to the present day through personal testimonies and intimate conversations with remarkable women and unseen archive footage. It opens a door to their inner thoughts, feelings, fears and hopes. Their experience foreshadowed that of women of today and yet their fate is also the story of their century.