The Gelina Of Ribnovo

High in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains, the village of Ribnovo transforms each winter for a centuries-old Pomak wedding ritual. Centred on the mesmerising transformation of the Gelina, a bride whose face is painted into a sequined mask, this documentary unfolds through a weekend, where the collective village is the protagonist. Archiving a marginalised Slavic-Muslim community in the face of modernism, it reveals a village undergoing a profound rite of passage that mirrors the bride's own.