Short Film Forum

The celebration of letters

Hybrid / Bulgaria
Director: Galina D. Georgieva
Producer: Ilina Perianova
Production Company: Uga Buga Art
Language: Bulgarian
Estimated Duration: 15 Minutes
Current Stage Of Development: Post Production

Synopsis:
In May 1986, weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, thousands of Bulgarian children gather to celebrate the Day of the Slavic Alphabet and Culture. Among them is a seven-year-old girl in white tights, holding a balloon and waiting to join the festive parade. Years later, this memory becomes the starting point for a documentary essay about radiation, silence and the failure of language to speak the truth.

Through archival footage, photographs, documents and personal narration, the film reveals the contrast between the grand socialist spectacle and the invisible radioactive contamination spreading through the air. As children sing “Forward, People Reborn”, the state remains silent about the danger.

Gradually, the festive images begin to decay: balloons deflate, white turns grey, and the letters of the alphabet transform into words like “Radiation” and “Chernobyl”. “The Festival of Letters” is a film essay about memory, propaganda and the moment when words lose their meaning.

Director’s Biography:
Galina D. Georgieva is aDirector and screenwriter with a background in film, theatre and academia. Holder of an MA in Film Directing and a PhD in Literature. Experience in fiction, documentary, dramaturgy and teaching. Selected for international programs such as Sarajevo Talents, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market , Transilvania Pitch Stop, In The Palace Project Market; Nisi Masa and etc. Since 2023, she has been a selector and part of the team of the international Rhodope Film Fest (RIFE). Her play has been staged in Sofia and she is a participant in the New Stages Southeast theatre residency by the Goethe-Institut.

Producer’s Biography:
Ilina Perianova is an awarded film and theatre director, screenwriter and producer from Bulgaria. She holds an MA from Baltic Film and Media School in Estonia. Her BA is in theatre acting and directing, which she has studied in Bulgaria and France and in workshops in Europe and India. Ilina's short films have been screened in numerous international festivals such as Cairo IFF, Tirana IFF, Festival du Cinéma Européen de Brest, FEST - New Directors, New Films, Sofia IFF, In the Palace IFF, Stony Brook Film Festival and many others. She is a cofounder of the production company Uga Buga Art. In 2026 premiered as a director of a theatre play at the Theatre on the Square in South Afica. Currently she is in production of two short films, finalising a feature documentary and developping her feature fiction debut. She is head programmer of the documentary Rhodope Film Festival since 2023.

Support Sought From Short Film Forum:
Coproducers, Distribution