An Unexpected Dimension

curated by Neda Milanova, Balkan Documentary Centre

We joined the “Another Story” project because, despite Balkan Documentary Center’s more than 15 years of work to advance the visibility of documentary cinema, we found that films by women in the non-fiction form remain largely unknown, and even more so from the Balkan region.

For the first year of the project, we hope to be able to include in the program a Bulgarian title by a director celebrated primarily in fiction: Binka Zhelyazkova. Over the course of her career, she ventured into documentary only once, with “Nani-na” and its director’s cut “Face and Back” – both focused on women prisoners, exploring their struggles, their guilt, and above all the pain of being separated from their children. Made in 1981, the films were forbidden to be screened until 1989. They reveal an unexpected dimension of Zhelyazkova’s work, one in which her creative force is felt just as powerfully as in her fiction films.