Awarded Bulgarian film director Doroteya Droumeva: Even the air in Cannes smells of cinema

Good news for Bulgaria came from Cannes: Bulgaria’s budding film director Doroteya Droumeva won the first prize in the Cinefondation category at the 64th Cannes Film Festival with her film The Letter (Der Brief). Klassa daily contacted Doroteya Droumeva in Berlin with the help of her mother Ms. Emiliya Droumeva who lives in Razgrad.

- Hello, Doroteya! Congratulations for your award! Would you present The Letter to the readers of our newspaper?
- Thank you for your attention! The Letter is my third film at the Academy. It’s about a woman who finds one day with a pregnancy test that she is expecting a baby. The film tells what happens to her from then on, from her own point of view. At the end, she decides to have an abortion. It was important for me to tell this story because abortion is still a topic that is public taboo. The film is not aimed at criticising society (although viewers may find criticism as well if they search for it). For me, as an author, it was more important to be close to the main character in the movie rather than condemn any of the other participants in the story.

- Can you tell me something about your team?
- The team attracted other students from the Berlin Film Academy, as well as young movie fans. I found Katleen Morgenear, the actress playing the main character, in a theatrical production – The Seagull by Chekhov and decided right away that she would be the best choice for the principal role. She caught my attention at first glance, I liked her so much! The filming took 12 days and the organisation was not at all easy because it involved many actors, scenes with mutes, various locations.

- How did you feel in Cannes - this global film centre - where you won a prize?
- It was very exciting, I had a lot of impressions, met many interesting people, people of prestige in the cinema world. I saw some very good films. My film The Letter was shown in the Cinefondation category, which aims to support young talented film directors A total of 16 short films were presented in 4 blocks for 3 days. My movie was shown last. The awarding ceremony was scheduled for four hours later and I spent this time at the beach. I received a diploma with a red ribbon, accompanying my first prize, personally from Gilles Jacob, President of the Cannes Film Festival, and I felt very, very happy.

- You will graduate soon. Will you come back to Bulgaria or will you stay in Germany?
- Yes, my next project is a full-length movie for my diploma. I want to continue making films and work as a film director. I am happy to come back to Bulgaria quite frequently as my parents and my sister live there, and I also have many friends. I am interested in Bulgaria and always read in the press about what is happening there.

- It will be interesting to hear some details about your education at the Berlin Film Academy.
- There are four disciplines at the Academy: directing, cinematography, script writing and producing. The training is divided in two parts: during the first two years, all students attend the same seminars and from the third year onwards, the training is specialised in the above-mentioned four disciplines. At the end of each school year, students shoot a film and the graduation film is the last one. The advantage of our Academy is that there are only a few associate professors with a permanent job. We are taught by professional artists who organise seminars on their own ideas. Almost all of them work as film directors, cameramen, actors, continuity editors, etc. They teach us on the basis of their own experience and not just in theory. However, there are some very good film theorists at the Academy because it is important not only to shoot movies but to be able to perceive and appreciate them. They usually show us a movie and then we discuss it together. The Bulgarian director of documentaries Marin Marchevski, was among my lecturers at the Academy and one of the most beloved by students. Regretfully, he retired this year.

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