Dea Kulumbegashvili and Petar Valchanov at the London Film Festival

This month saw the 68th edition of the London Film Festival hit the capital’s cinemas, and as always Eastern Europe was well represented. Host Sam Goff went down to the festival press circuit to get hold of two of our favourite filmmakers to feature in the programme this year. First up is Georgia’s Dea Kulumbegashvili, whose new film April has been turning heads since it won the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The film is a rigorous but extremely moving portrait of an obstetrician in rural Georgia who moonlights as an abortionist providing unsanctioned treatment for pregnant women and girls. Dea speak candidly about the painstaking research process behind the film and the challenge of portraying the breadth of female experience on screen. 

Then we’re off to Bulgaria with Petar Valchanov. Petar was in town with his latest film, Triumph, which, as ever, he co-directed with his partner, Kristina Grozeva. The film is based on a bizarre true story from the early post-communist nineties, when the nation’s military, under the influence of a psychic, conducted a secret mission to excavate alien artefacts in a village outside Sofia. Petar is joined by the film’s star Margita Gosheva, who plays the psychic in question, to discuss the appeal of this stranger-than-fiction true story and the portrait of Bulgaria that results.

Watch Petar and Kristina’s 2019 drama The Father on Klassiki now and read more about Dea Kulumbegashvili’s filmmaking process in our interview from Venice here.

Listen above or head to your favourite podcast app to subscribe now. The Klassiki Podcast is available on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Audible, and more.

Intro music by Juliet Merchant.