DISTANCE / ДИСТАНЦИЯ

Albena, a Bulgarian artist living in Switzerland, arrives in her native town of Plovdiv. She is back to spend the Christmas time with her 89-years-old mother. At their very private dinner, their conversation reaches a point of conflict: it is 43 years to the day since their 17-years-old son and brother committed suicide in an act of political and personal protest. The mother doesn’t want to talk about it.

The film moves back and forth between past and present and between locations in Plovdiv, Prague and Basel, to reveal the circumstances that led to brother’s death. Albena traces her family’s story through conversations with her mother and brother’s school mates, family photos, archival material from the late 1960s, and with her paintings and drawings she made to ease the pain after her brother’s death. Gradually, mother and daughter open up their hearts to talk about their family drama.