THE COUNTESS

The summer of momentous 1968, and Sofia is playing venue to the “World Festival of Youth and Students”. For a few days, the bleakness of everyday life seems magically dispelled (or at least reduced). But the liberal climate is deceptive. For Sybilla (“The Countess” to her friends), it is the beginning of a wretched “career” through various state institutions and their dubious resocialization measures. However, she refuses to resign in the face of reformatory, labour camp, prison, psychiatric hospital and a series of personal blows. Made under unmitigated totalitarian conditions, the film ruthlessly unmasks the disenfranchisement of the individual in Bulgaria, at the same time articulating the desires and disappointments of several generations at once.