The Beast Is Still Alive

This documentary was subjected to condemnation and attempts for institutional censorship as soon as it was done. The film observes how one man makes a career using another in the totalitarian society of Communist Bulgaria.

A ship sets sail on an epic voyage through malignant natural and supernatural elements from which one man alone survives. An adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner illustrated by19th Century wood engravings which are animated by scratching directly into the surface of color filmstock. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner with its message of ecological redemption has a curiously contemporary resonance, but it is at the level of the mythic that the poem has lasting relevance; for this epic tale of extraordinary events simply mirrors the struggle that each human being faces on their own in his or her life. -VDB

Vasil is a Bulgarian immigrant who lives on the street in Spain. Intelligent and charismatic, he has an amazing talent for chess and bridge, so much so, in fact, that despite being homeless, he manages to make a name for himself in an exclusive and prestigious club in the city.

Cat in the Wall tells the true story of how a cat, stuck in a wall, changes the lives of aspirational migrants, benefit fraudsters and gentrified Brexiteers.

A mother stork is shot down from a chimney. A postnatal woman nearly jumps off a balcony. A girl contracts HIV from an adulterous partner. A woman applies make-up to two kittens. A mother looks for magic in the lunar calendar. These events are commonplace for this seemingly normal family, revealing the fine line they live between fragility and absurdity. In the meantime, their country Bulgaria is shaken up by anti-gender and anti-equality protests with an undercurrent of violence. These women are united by a shared trauma, but now they are ready to confront their father’s troubling past.