Je vois rouge

I See Red People
When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, Bojina was eight years old. A short time after, her father, an artist, moved with her from Bulgaria to live in Paris. Twenty years later, this young woman returns to Sofia on her own, intent on documenting everything. She senses that there is something unspoken in her family's past. Why were they always able to travel? Were her parents privileged? Bojina starts to confront them with uncomfortable questions. She learns that a good friend of her mother’s worked for the Bulgarian secret service and met her regularly to quiz her about her foreign contacts; she also learns that her father sold his paintings to members of the secret service. With a high degree of self-reflection, Bojina digs deeper into her family history and gets into an argument with her parents that escalates into a dispute about loyalty, post-communist arrogance and the right to one’s own history.
Director Bojina Panayotova assembles archival footage, old family films and interviews to create a multi-layered, at times humorously exaggerated collage of sounds and images about a journey into the past which, once ended, will allow her to make a better start on her own future.
by Bojina Panayotova France / Bulgaria 2018 Bulgarian, French 83’ World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Written and Directed by Bojina Panayotova
Cinematography Bojina Panayotova, Xavier Sirven
Editing Léa Chatauret, Elsa Jonquet, Bojina Panayotova
Music Emilian Gatsov
Sound Design Xavier Sirven
Sound Bojina Panayotova
Producer Roy Arida
Co-Producer Arnaud Dommerc
Co-Production Andolfi Paris

Produced by

Stank

Bojina Panayotova

Born in Bulgaria in 1982, she moved to France at the age of eight. Je vois rouge (I See Red People) is her first feature-length film.

Filmography

2008 Si je tombe (If I Fall); short film 2009 À domicile (Home Match); short film 2014 Cosmonautes (Cosmonauts); short film 2018 Je vois rouge (I See Red People)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018