2024
Iskra (the name translates to “spark”) wakes up in a black, soot-covered apartment. She cleans the blackness away all day while her grandfather, obsessed with the past, burns documents and old newspapers all night. New soot settles on the walls and Iskra wakes up to another day of cleaning. Her only friend is a chicken, who lives on the balcony and lays walnuts. While feeding it, Iskra sees a young man in the courtyard. He shows up at her apartment the next day. Grandfather throws him out but the young man’s arrival, sparks a longing inside Iskra and she starts dreaming of breaking free from her dull routine. Another day of cleaning awaits. When a fight with her grandfather escalates, Iskra takes her chicken and jumps off the balcony.
I was born and raised in Bulgaria when it was still a communist country. When I was eleven, my family immigrated to the US to escape the dregs of a stagnant authoritarian system for the promise of personal and professional freedom. After many years of living in New York, I found myself on the wrong professional ladder and escaped to a tiny community outside of Oaxaca, Mexico to work on films. I returned to New York a few days before Donald Trump was elected president. A short time after, I escaped to Sweden.
I have been an immigrant three times in my life so far and escape is at the epicenter of my reasons to leave. I mistakenly equate it to freedom. The impulse to escape is so euphoric, like jumping off a cliff into open water. It allows one to wipe the slate clean and begin rewriting history,
At the center of this magical realist story are two characters who long to flee. The grandfather is trying to escape from the piles of paper he has amassed as a result of his obsession with the past. Iskra is trying to escape from her Sisyphean task of cleaning up after her grandfather. The film is an absurdist allegory about the desire to break free.
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